In the last three years the Central Bank has injected US$5.575 billion into T&T’s foreign exchange system and Republic Bank Limited (RBL) purchased US$1,185.536 million of that amount.
The bank released that information in full page newspaper advertisements yesterday to refute claims that it has been diverting foreign exchange for its own gains.
RBL said prior to April 1, 2014, it received 27.5 per cent of the Central Bank’s injections of foreign exchange but that had been reduced to 8.33 per cent, then increased to 25 per cent in July of that year, before being further revised upward to its original share of 27.5 per cent last October.
Over the last three calendar years, the bank said, its sales to the public totaled US$4.097 billion.
“During the three-year fiscal period, October 1, 2012, to September 30, 2015, Republic Bank earned US$125.3 million from the dividends earned from its overseas subsidiary and net income on its overseas investments,” the bank said
This year the RBL acquired two subsidiaries—HFC Bank (Ghana) and Republic Bank (Suriname) NV.
The total cost of its investment in HFC Bank (Ghana) was US$72.87 million, of which US$26.04 million was spent this year. The total cost of the investment in Republic Bank (Suriname) NV was US$45.3 million, all of which was spent this year. The total expenditure on the two subsidiaries in 2015 was US$71.34 million—substantially less than was earned by RBL from its own overseas investments.
The bank said: “Republic Bank wishes to categorically state that it did not, at any time, divert, for its own gain, foreign exchange that the Central Bank injected into the market. All injected funds sold to Republic Bank by the Central Bank were resold to the bank’s customers for trade and retail purposes and all sales were subject to scrutiny by the Central Bank.”