Bahamas - FirstCaribbean International Bank

Group Chief Executive Officer’s ReportAs Chief Executive Officer of the FirstCaribbeanGroup, I am honoured to have this opportunityto touch on the highlights of the 2002 fiscalyear for the Group and for FirstCaribbeanInternational Bank (Bahamas) Limited, and tooutline some of our plans for continuing tobuild on the entire bank’s strong foundations,inherited from Barclays and CIBC, in the yearsto come.Financial Performance ofFirstCaribbean International Bank(Bahamas) LimitedDespite the severe economic downturn in theCaribbean and the Bahamas experiencedthroughout 2002, your bank remains very strong.The pro-forma net income for the year of $53.6million represents a modest 0.5 % decline onthe 2001 outturn. Your bank recorded anincrease in loans of 3.5% and assets of 3.6%.This number must also be considered againstour determination to continue to adhere to riskpolicies in the long-term interests of ourshareholders. The rewards of this policy arevisible in the excellent performance on creditprovisions, which declined by $4.3 million.The continuing strength of the FirstCaribbeanGroup is also exhibited in our A- credit ratingwith Standard & Poors. Again this comparesfavourably to major competitors in the region.Management took action to exert rigorousexpense control in the face of the difficulteconomic environment and the benefits of thatare seen in expenses showing a 1.7 % reductionof $1.2 million.At time of writing, the previously announcedRights Issue for FirstCaribbean InternationalBank (Bahamas) Limited has been approved bythe Central Bank of The Bahamas and hascommenced; we look forward to the continuedsupport of our shareholders through this RightsIssue.StrategyThe FirstCaribbean Group strategy is to focuson four customer focused businesses, eachdelivering sales and service support tailored tothe specific needs of their customers.Those businesses, and the key elements of ourstrategy for each, are as follows;Retail BankingFocused on our personal and small businesscustomers the key elements of our strategy are to:• Develop focused customer offeringsthrough differential focus on our threesub segments of Retail, Premier andBusiness banking.Our strategy is to concentrateon four customer focusedbusinesses, each deliveringsales and service supporttailored to the specificneeds of their customers• Develop alternative channels oftelephone banking, and in time Internetbanking, to bring choice andconvenience to our customers, adding toour 85 branches and 120 ATMs, of which20