Managing Director of the Jamaica-based JN Bank, Leesa Kow is the new chair of the Caribbean Association of Banks (CAB) Inc.
Ms. Kow was elected unopposed during the Association’s 49th Annual General Meeting held on Wednesday, 26 October at the Harbor Club Resort in Saint Lucia. She replaces Dalton Lee, chairperson of the Bank of Montserrat, who served two terms as chairperson of CAB. Mr Lee will, however, has been elected to serve as director for the Eastern Caribbean and Barbados.
A previous director for the Association’s Northern Caribbean region, Ms. Kow brings to the position a wealth of experience and success as a business leader in the financial services sector and telecommunications industry in Jamaica and overseas. A 20-year veteran in financial services, she has also served as chairperson of CAB’s advocacy committee.
Michael Walcott, General Manager, Overseas Operations at Republic Financial Holdings, was elected deputy chairperson. Joining Mr. Lee as a director for the Eastern Caribbean and Barbados is Victor Boyce, Managing Director of ANSA Bank (Barbados), who takes over from Frances Parravicino in representing ANSA Bank on the board.
Wednesday’s AGM also elected two first-time directors. Tracy Ebanks, CEO/General Manager of the Cayman Islands Development Bank, received overwhelming support from her fellow members to serve as a director for the Northern Caribbean, while Tanya Watson-Francis, General Manager, Treasury & Correspondent Banking Division at National Commercial Bank Jamaica Ltd., was also voted director for the Northern Caribbean.
Keshwar Khodai, Head – Group Treasury at First Citizens Bank in Trinidad and Tobago, and Evelyn Wayne, Director, Economic Policy and Development at the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) Secretariat, also return to the board.
Wednesday’s AGM was held as part of the annual CAB Conference, where more than 200 bankers from around the region and beyond have been gathering to discuss critical issues facing the region’s banking industry. On Tuesday, more than 40 practitioners benefitted from trade finance training, facilitated by the International Finance Corporation and the Financial and International Business Association. Following the AGM, the Atlantic Council’s Adrienne Arsht Latin America Center held a closed roundtable with a number of stakeholders to discuss strategies and recommendations to address the withdrawal of correspondent banking relations in the Caribbean.
