Just six months after the National Bank of Belize opened its doors - manager Jose Marin has been shown the door. At 2:00 pm today, Chairman of the Bank's Board, Minister of Energy, Science and Technology Joy Grant went to the bank to tell him that the board had taken the decision to terminate him. But, Marin, a veteran banker says he's happy to be gone, and actually wanted to resign a month ago.
This is because he's been having frequent clashes with the Board and told us candidly today on the phone that they wanted him to do, quote, "things in banking that you cannot do, things (that are) not ethical and not professional." He named Chairman Grant directly as driving this behavior.
She told us today, quote, "Anyone who knows me knows I would never urge anyone to do anything unethical." End quote.
Grant did not want to get into a back and forth, only saying that it was time for a separation and that she was thankful to Marin for his service.
The feeling, though, isn't mutual. Marin told us plainly that the Board wasn't sensitive to ratios that he as bank manager had to delicately maintain to ensure the institution's continued viability. He says that Grant was pushing for more loans to be made, saying she doesn't care about the losses, because every business makes a loss in the first year.
Today, she told us that indeed "nobody expects a start-up to make profits in a year, not a national bank. She added, that "ratios make no sense now (in the first six months)...you have to get money out the door before you can get it in with interest." End quote.
And that seems to have been the problem. The bank, which Marin said had no computer network has only processed 78 loans in its first six months - and the board - including the social sector director - wanted loans made at a faster clip, and it seems Marin was unwilling to do that. Grant told us that, quote, "Certain things that needed to happen that we did not feel were happening. " She added, quote, "we don't need to apologize...to serve as many people as quickly as we can as long as we follow the rules that we've established." End quote.
And she said those rules applied across the board, while Marin alleged that Grant pushed for a mortgage loan for her CEO at a preferential interest rate with preferential terms. Grant said that no bank officer can speak about specific loans, but explained that anybody who got a loan went through the same procedure, the application went to a loans committee which made its recommendations.
She said that she met with the staff after Marin left to assure them it would be business as usual on Monday and that a new Assistant Manager with a banking background will be brought in on Monday. The post of manager will be advertised.
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