The East Caribbean Central Bank (ECCB) has given its stamp of approval to the amalgamation of the National Commercial Bank (NCB) of St .Vincent and the Grenadines and the East Caribbean Financial Holding Company Ltd. (ECFH) of St. Lucia.{{more}}

Governor of the ECCB Sir Dwight Venner, has said the amalgamation will strengthen the capital base of the regional banking system.

According to a Caribbean Media Corporation (CMC) report, Sir Dwight said the acquisition is in keeping with the eight-point stabilization and growth programme designed to strengthen the regional banking system in the aftermath of the global financial collapse of 2008.

Sir Dwight said the financial institutions also complement each other.

“This can be interpreted as a weakness that you have, but actually, it is a strength, because you bring together institutions which complement each other and which then spread the risk over two countries as opposed to one.

“Let’s say St. Vincent’s bank had a lot of mortgages on the books and there is a hurricane, zoom! But if it is in part of a bank that spans St. Lucia and St. Vincent, and if you have three islands more, the risk is mitigated …; okay, so that makes a lot of sense from where we sit.