Group Chief Executive Officer: Karen Darbasie
The First Citizens Group is one of the leading financial services groups in Trinidad and Tobago. It offers a full range of retail, corporate and merchant banking services as well as asset management, trustee and brokerage services. The Group is headquartered in Trinidad and Tobago and First Citizens Bank, which is the largest part of the Group, has an extensive retail branch network in Trinidad and Tobago with a large deployment of ATM and point of sale devices in both islands.
In 2009, First Citizens acquired Caribbean Money Market Brokers Limited (now re-branded as First Citizens Investment Services Limited), the largest full service securities trading Company in the Caribbean with offices in Trinidad and Tobago, Barbados, St, Vincent and St. Lucia. This position is further strengthened by the latest acquisition of Butterfield Bank (Barbados) (now re-branded as First Citizens Bank (Barbados) Limited). First Citizens Bank (Barbados) Limited which is a full service bank and provides community, commercial and private banking services was founded in 1858 and headquartered in Hamilton, Bermuda. This acquisition represents an opportunity for First Citizens to further expand its presence in Barbados beyond the subsidiary First Citizens Investment Services.
First Citizens is the highest rated indigenous financial institution in the English speaking Caribbean with long term foreign currency counterparty credit ratings of Baa1 from Moody’s and BBB+ from Standard and Poor’s. This rating strengthened the Group’s position as it was officially listed on the Trinidad and Tobago Stock Exchange (TTSE) on 16th September 2013 after an extremely successful and oversubscribed Initial Public Offering (IPO) of First Citizens Shares.
The Group has successfully issued fixed income paper in the international financial market and has won a number of awards over the years, including the most recent Bank of the Year 2012 by the renowned Banker Magazine. The Bank was also named among the Top Safest Emerging Market Banks for 2012 in Latin America.
Over the years, the Group has introduced a number of innovations locally including internet banking and mobile banking. It has also been recognised on several occasions for excellence in innovation, communications technology and e-commerce by the local Energy Chamber of Trinidad and Tobago. The Group has also been involved in financing a number of landmark projects across the region and has an asset base of just over TT$34 billion (approximately US$5.3 billion) and recorded profit before tax of TT$714.2 million (Approximately US$111.6 million) for the last fiscal year ended September 30 2012.