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Stephen Duncan, Managing Director - Heritage Bank
"I think the best way to describe is to say that we are excited about what is happening. This is for us, such a big deal. I mean, for one of the bigger banks, it might not be as big a deal. But for us is a big deal. It is going to double our balance sheet size immediately and you can't scuff at something like that [smiling]."

"This would represent a growth for us that would have taken us a couple years or a few years to accumulate. So effectively you get a level of growth within let's say for argument sake one year - that under normal circumstances could have taken four years to accomplish. We intend now to go through a period of consolidation as we integrate this. Which will require us to focus both on our existing customers as well as the new ones that will be coming on board. And I would want to say to the customers of First Caribbean that we will at Heritage to do our best if given the opportunity and if the deal is approved by the regulators and it goes through, we will certainly do our best to provide them with the service that they desire and that they deserved."

"We are not staffed to handle and absorb activities of that size. Like I said, its going to double our balance sheet. So effectively, we will have no choice but to increase our current staff compliment to be able to handle the increased work load, yes."

Jules Vasquez
"Okay now, you were at the First Caribbean Bank, you know a lot of the people who worked there. How would you all handle the update of that staff? Will you all be looking principally at the staff from that bank and that institution to fill your staffing needs and of the 60, how many?"

Stephen Duncan
"I don't know whether it's a blessing or curse Jules. The honest truth is I am caught in a situation where those people working employed by First Caribbean are friends by and large. I led them. I was there leader for years and so I have a level of relationship with them that I am... this transaction actually has cause mix feelings for me, because some of the people that I know very well will be hurt in the process."

"Again, like I said, even as I will be able to help some of the people that I know very well, I know that I will not be able to help all and there will be some that I will not be able to help. That is where it's going to get very tight for me at a personal level that is."

And keeping it on that personal level, Duncan also has mixed feelings about leading the buyout of the bank he used to run. Duncan worked first for Barclay's Bank - and then when the Canadian owned first Caribbean bought that over - he stayed on. But his mixed feeling about the buyout aren't sentimental; they are practical. First Caribbean is one of only two international banks in Belize - and now it is being brought over by a strictly local bank. Duncan lamented the inevitable:..

Stephen Duncan, Managing Director - Heritage Bank
"Right now as we go through some of the challenges facing banking, it is not the time that I would want to see an international bank leave Belize. That is an honest perspective. But as I said to the First Caribbean team if you insist on leaving and you've made up your mind to leave, then I feel honored to be the one to benefit from that."

Duncan stressed that the transaction is not yet completed - and still has to meet regulatory approval - so all the arrangements are not final. Heritage Bank will situate its headquarters at the First Caribbean building in downtown Belize City but no decision has yet been taken on what will happen with the other branch offices. He told us that Heritage already has locations in all the municipalities where First Caribbean was established - so that should simplify the transition.