Net income of BCB Holdings, the most recent edition to the local stock exchange, plunged by 39 per cent in the quarter ended June 30, the company's financial results indicated. The company reported net income of US$8.9 million for the quarter ended June 30, 2010, the first quarter of fiscal 2011. This was sharply down from the US$14.6 million it recorded for the same quarter in its fiscal 2010.
BCB, formerly known as Belize Bank, is now chaired by former Finance Minister Wendell Mottley, who serves in a non-executive role. Mottley, who was part of a three-member committee reviewing the Government's role in the CL Financial bailout, has been a director of BCB Holdings since July 2009. The previous chairman was billionaire Lord Michael Ashcroft, who resigned the post at the Belize-headquartered company shortly before the general elections in the United Kingdom in May.
Ashcroft is vice chairman of the Conservative Party in the UK.
The operating income of the financial services division for the quarter ended June 30, amounted to US$6.3 million, which was a 44 per cent decline compared with the same quarter a year earlier. The financial services division operates principally through the Belize Bank in Belize and British Caribbean Bank in the Turks and Caicos Islands. In Belize, the bank is the largest, full service commercial and retail banking operation with a head office in Belize City and thirteen branches extending into each of the six districts of Belize.
The principal operations of the Bank are commercial lending, consumer lending, deposit-taking and related banking activities. In Turks and Caicos the Bank is one of the largest commercial lenders. The chief executive of BCB Holdings is Lyndon Guiseppi, who was appointed in July 2008. Former Central Bank Governor Euric Bobb, who resigned as chairman of CL Financial earlier this year, is the third local director on the board of BCB Holdings.