'The Atrium', head office of National Commercial Bank.
McPherse Thompson, Assistant Financial News Editor
THE NATIONAL Commercial Bank (NCB) is expected to transfer its trust business to its pension fund management division, West Indies Trust Company (WITCo), by tomorrow in keeping with a directive from the Bank of Jamaica (BoJ) to separate those operations from its core business.
Under separation guidelines issued by the BoJ last year, deposit-taking institutions can no longer carry out trust services unless the court appoints them to do so in specific circumstances, especially in relation to minors. However, the central bank had also advised that such services may be undertaken by trust arms of the banks.
In recent advertisements, NCB said it would be divesting its trust management services, which include those the bank now provide as trustee and or as the executor or administrator of estates.
However, the bank said it has made arrangements for those services to be carried out by WITCo, a subsidiary and non-deposit-taking institution licensed and regulated by the Financial Services Commission.
NCB said the regulatory changes required a transfer of the trust services and that would be done by various legal means, including obtaining an order from the Supreme Court to appoint WITCo as the new trustee to replace the Bank.
ASSUME THE ROLE
It also said it expected the transfer to be effected by tomorrow, after which "WITCo will be responsible for carrying out the management of your trust matters and will assume the role which NCB has, up to now, undertaken in respect of the trust services."
In addition, the bank said all arrangements were being made to ensure that the transfer of trust services was undertaken in as seamless a manner as possible and with little or no inconvenience to its clients.
NCB, specifically addressing its current clientele, emphasised that although in some cases "you have, by Will, named us as executor of your estate upon your death," recent changes in the regulatory requirements meant the bank could only provide trust services on behalf of an estate in specified circumstances.
"In the event that the Will is your most current one, we therefore ask that you take steps to have a new Will prepared, which appoints someone other than NCB as executor," the bank said, in the notice to customers. It said further that if clients wish WITCo to be appointed as their executor, they should contact the bank to make such arrangements.
