Business Model
What do the Bank of Baroda, the Bank of Nova Scotia and Republic Bank have in common, besides being foreign-owned? They like lending to Guyanese consumers. The most recent quarterly statistics from the Bank of Guyana confirm that the three foreign-owned banks operating in Guyana see value in doing business with Guyanese households and have consumer lending as an important part of their business model. The report that covers the quarter ended in September 2010 revealed that the banking sector in Guyana made about 16 percent of its loan portfolio available to Guyanese consumers, even though the disposition in lending vary widely among banks. The contrast between the foreign and local banks is stark and shows the differing approach to utilization of deposits and the strategy for generating future growth in the industry. In the third quarter of 2010, the foreign banks had given an average of 24 percent of their loans to Guyanese households while the local banks had given an average of eight percent.
Double-Digit Shares
All three foreign-owned banks held double-digit shares of their loans to Guyanese families. The biggest support for household financing came from the Bank of Baroda, which used 30 percent of its portfolio
