The planned departure of India’s Bank of Baroda and Canada’s Bank of Nova Scotia only months before first oil here opens opportunities for local banks to expand their operations and pull in new foreign investors, according to Minister of Finance Winston Jordan.
Jordan yesterday disputed reports that government was not aware that the Bank of Baroda would be ceasing operations here as he said it had notified government since April of its scaling-down of operations worldwide.
“We knew about Bank of Baroda since April. No. No. No. We knew since April that they were pulling out. We tried to do whatever to keep them but the local branch is not influential, relative to their head office. It is not as if you can just go and say, ‘Man, hold back.’ Once they made that decision, they will go through with it,” Jordan told Stabroek News on the sidelines of yesterday’s sitting of the National Assembly.
