Local banks continue to wrestle with excess liquidity and the overall slowdown in borrowing by the business sector even with interest rates at all-time lows, says Nigel Baptiste, managing director at Republic Bank Limited.
Speaking at the 2016 Graduation Ceremony of the Institute of Banking and Finance of T&T at the T&T Chamber of Industry and Commerce in Westmoorings, he said: "We grapple with a changing customer demographic, high staff turnover across the industry and greater opportunities for fraud and money laundering from an increasingly interconnected world. Why am I telling you all of this?
"The qualifications in banking and finance you are obtaining will certainly not make you an instant expert to tackle challenges in the financial services sector. The qualifications in banking and finance you are obtaining today give you a unique opportunity to further prove yourself within whatever organisation or team to which your belong.
"These qualifications mean that you are better equipped to play your part of an overall team. These qualifications mean that you are well on your way."Baptiste told graduates of the programme while hard work and determination might get them to the top, integrity would keep them there.
"Never compromise your personal integrity to make a dollar, or even a billion. The world's news always seems to be filled with another story of a banker of a financial organisation that sought to cut corners and act dishonestly.
"I don't have to tell you how much of society is keyed-in to our sector but I do want to tell you that with every accomplishment you attain, you are doing your part in telling the story that bankers are not dishonest," Baptiste said.
He said T&T had numerous vulnerabilities in its financial system, including a heavy dependence on the energy sector, high level of household indebtedness and historically low domestic interest rates.
"In any bank, any organisation, there are always those who are solely focused on the short-term gain–the biggest bonus and the flashy exciting job title–which may be fine but as you continue to navigate the ups and down of your career paths in pursuit of long-term goals, the hard truth remains you have to continue to work hard so you can continue to stand out.
"And, you need to be patient and wait for the opportunities to arise. Hard work and patience paved the road for my bosses to first notice and then, subsequently, believe in me. Over time, as all the things I had learned previously in class came into play, I continued learning and working hard at my job. And that included aspects that I had never thought of before; things like learning how to be absolutely comfortable managing people, who were older than I am."
Baptiste said he had learned that the best ideas never came from operating alone in a silo or from the management team operating alone but from a team working together.
"In short, the more I knew, the more I knew I had to know. Through that thinking, I learned about innovation. I learned how to successfully challenge paradigms. I learned how to make presentations, drive hard negotiations and close a deal. I learned how to speak the language of leaders and that language is surprisingly simple as you yourselves will one day discover.
"It doesn't matter in what capacity you serve, your serve the customer. They have placed trust in us and we must always do our best to never let them down. They may never stop saying that we are 'ol tiefs', but let us continue to do our very best, to never give them reason to say more, and worse," he said.