Kennedy

UNION BANK said it has sold about 300 single family mortgages, valued at around $200 million, which were being held by the Eagle Permanent Building Society, as part of the effort to wind up the operations of four failed commercial banks and their subsidiaries.

Union Bank chief executive, Don Kennedy, confirmed that the loans were being liquidated as part of the winding up operations, but declined to say to which institution they have been sold. He said the mortgages were sold at face value, and their sale would have no effect on individuals currently holding the loans because the terms and conditions would remain as they were, pursuant to an agreement with the building society which bought them.

Mr. Kennedy said they would be selling other loans, "depending on if we get the right price." He explained that they were in the process of winding down those building societies established as subsidiaries of the banks now under the control of Union Bank, and part of the process was either to sell the loans or keep and service them.

Both acting general manager of the Jamaica National Building Society (JNBS), Earl Jarrett, and managing director of CIBC, Anne Shirley, said they were in discussions with Union Bank with a view to purchasing some of the loans, but they have not yet finalised an agreement.

Union Bank was established in December 1998 as a holding company to merge and rehabilitate Citizens, Workers, Eagle and Island Victoria Banks, to create the third largest commercial bank in Jamaica after the National Commercial Bank (NCB) and the Bank of Nova Scotia (BNS).

The four banks, taken over by the Financial Sector Adjustment Company (FINSAC) between 1997 and 1998, had a total of about 30 subsidiaries, more than 40 branches and more than 1,400 workers.

Since Finance Minister, Dr. Omar Davies announced the establishment of Union Bank, several branches of the banks across the island have either been closed or merged and the posts of hundreds of workers made redundant.

Several other branches of the banks are due to be closed by the time the amalgamation is completed around the end of September.