Banking assets in St. Kitts & Nevis pass EC$2 billion mark

Tuesday, December 23, 2003

BASSETERRE, St. Kitts: Total commercial banking assets in St. Kitts and Nevis passed the EC$2 billion mark during the first eight months of this year.

Prime Minister and Minister of Finance, Dr. Denzil Douglas said commercial banking in St. Kitts and Nevis continues to make remarkable strides, as reflected by the strength of its asset base. 

He said the assets of commercial banks increased by EC$181.5 million or 10.2 percent to total just under EC$2 billion at the end of 2002 and with a further increase of EC$180.2 million during the first eight months of this year, bringing total banking assets to EC$2.1 billion.

Deposits grew to EC$1.5 billion while loans and advances fell to just about EC$1 billion. Liquidity in the commercial banking system increased as the ratio of loans and advances to deposits fell further to 70.2 percent.

Dr. Douglas said that the St. Kitts-Nevis-Anguilla National Bank, the largest commercial bank in the Eastern Caribbean Currency Union, now has assets in excess of EC$1 billion.

"This is no mean achievement for an indigenous bank built from the brain and brawn of our people. Indeed, the progress of the St. Kitts-Nevis-Anguilla National Bank from a penny-bank to a billion-dollar bank in just three decades is indicative of the great social and economic strides that our people have made," said Prime Minister Douglas, who added that the entire banking system in St. Kitts and Nevis has been recording impressive growth.

Last year, deposits grew by 6.3 percent to reach EC$1.4 billion at the end of that year. Loans and advances grew by 3.8 percent to EC$1.1 billion owing to increased credit to the agriculture, distributive trades and personal sectors.

Liquidity in the commercial banking system improved further as deposits grew faster than loans and advances, resulting in the ratio of loans and advances to deposits declining to 79 percent at the end of 2002 from 80.9 percent at end of the previous year. 

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