Following its internalisation policy and considering the historical ties and commercial trade between Portugal and Cape Verde, Caixa Geral de Depositos decided to open a branch in the Cape Verde islands. The CGD Cape Verde branch was inaugurated in January 1998.
One year later, it decided to upgrade its presence in Cape Verde, in order to increase its participation in the economic development of the country and to benefit from investments opportunities offered by a modernising economy, particularly in the financial sector.
Therefore, in July 1999 Caixa Geral de Depositos, the largest Portuguese bank, and a group of local investors, created Banco Interatlântico, by incorporating the GCD Cape Verde branch’s activity.
Since the beginning of its activities Banco Interatlântico chose to be different from existing banks in the market. It decided to give special attention to corporations and high income private individuals, which was quite challenging, given the small size of the Cape Verde Economy and its corporate market. This strategic option explains therefore the bank’s competitive strategy, its branch network policy, its selective notoriety and its achievements.
As matter of fact, as of December 2008, 73 percent of the bank’s loan portfolio was corporate loans and 53 percent of its deposits were corporate deposits. This is a unique situation in Cape Verde banking system, where corporate loans represent about 45 percent of total loans and corporate deposits represent about 38 percent of total deposits.
Committed to delivering quality global financial services, Banco Interatlântico was soon recognised for its innovation and technological modernisation capacity, especially in the payment system where it played a significant role in the expansion of bank automation network (ATM and POS) in the country.
The bank offers debit cards, credit cards, pre-paid cards, internet banking and mobile banking.
Having CGD as its major shareholder and major partner, allowed Banco Interatlântico to have extended capacity in dealing with international payments, which has been a competitive advantage in the past, when foreign currency asset was an important competitive instruments.
In this regard the bank introduced a credit facility for Trade Finance which became very popular and has granted to the bank a good deal of awareness among imports companies.
Banco Interatlântico started its activity in a moment where Cape Verde was living an exciting moment in its history and was undertaking significant changes in its economy. The country was undergoing its modernisation, liberalisation and privatisation programmes, which positive impact in the economic and outlook and social atmosphere.
Banco Interatlântico participated actively in the financial system privatisation, and with Caixa Geral de Depósitos, they acquire about 70 percent of Banco Comercial de Atlantico, the largest bank in the country, as well Garantia, the largest insurance company, and Promotora, the only existing risk capital company in the country.
To increase its landing capacity, since de beginning of its activity, the bank has been every active in using international financial institution facilities. Credit lines from European Investment Bank and French Development Agency have been used as well as guarantee facilities from GARI (west Africa, guarantee Funds for private sector).
With recent economic changes in the country, namely the tourism development, which led to an increasing importance of new economic centres (Sal, Boavista and Maio). The bank had to adjust its branch network to provide better coverage to these economic centres, benefiting of new business opportunities while supporting its clients’ activities. Thus, the bank opened a second branch on Sal islands, located in Santa Maria, in December 2007. In July 2008 the bank opened its first branch on Boa Vista island.
Banco Interatlântico has been playing important role in supporting European companies, especially Portuguese, Spanish and Italian, in Cape Verde. Some major tourism developments in Sal, Boa Vista and Santiago, are support by Banco Interatlântico, either alone or in syndication.
With the development of tourism real estate and the increasing interest of European investors specially from the UK and Ireland, in Cape Verde real estate market the bank designed a special lending facilities for Non Resident to finance home acquisition. This facility is also available under the brand “Live in Cape Verde” registered and promoted by Caixa Geral de Depósitos, Portugal.
In order to further increase its lending capacity and improve capital adequacy ratio, Banco Interatlântico issued in 2008, through the stock exchange, with great success, the first subordinated obligation in Cape Verde financial system history. In the beginning of this year the bank share capital has been increased in 66 percent, from Ä5.44m to Ä9.67m.
The bank had positive evolution of all its main indicators such as Total asset, Asset quality, profitability, equity, number of employee, branch network etc. It ranks as third largest bank in the country with 13 percent market share in the deposits and 12 percent in loans, as of December 31, 2008.
With total assets of Ä138.6m, it employs 82 people and its branch network covers the four main islands of the country (Santiago, S. Vicente, Sal and Boavista) which represent more than 85 percent of the country’s population and GDP.
Perspectives
Since September 2008 the bank has a new management team, committed with further development of the bank. A new strategic plan has approved in March 2009 which include an action plan aiming the strengthening the bank position as global financial service provider committed with service quality, innovation and customers convenience.
The bank’s vision is: to be the preferred bank for corporate clients recognised for its innovation and high standard service quality.
Under the new strategic plan, the branch network will be selectively expanded in order to better serve the market. During 2009, one new branch was opened in Assomada, Santa Catarina. Another one will opened in Praia, the country Capital city, in the first quarter of 2010.
Internal and external communication will be developed as strategic axis to increase the bank awareness and institutional development.
Recruitment and training process will be significantly improved in order to match the staff’s qualification and behaviour to the bank vision and to reinforce and consolidate the bank’s position in a more than ever competitive market.
International Accounting and Reporting principles as well as an Operational Risk Prevention program are under implementation in the bank, in order to improve its prudential indicators adequacy and the service quality.
Human resources improvement, internal procedure enhancement, brand notoriety reinforcement and innovation in serving our customers and the country, will guide the bank in the near future.
For more information: www.bi.cv
