The JMMB Group will have its first com­mer­cial bank in the Do­mini­can Re­pub­lic.

This as the JMMB Hold­ing Com­pa­ny, SRI and its par­ent JMMB Group Ltd have re­ceived fi­nal reg­u­la­to­ry ap­proval for the pur­chase of 100 per cent of the shares in Ban­co Múlti­ple Bell Bank in the Do­mini­can Re­pub­lic.

It has al­so re­ceived the go-ahead to pro­ceed with a merg­er of the new­ly bought en­ti­ty with Ban­co Ahor­ro y Crédi­to, JMMB Bank, S.A., a sav­ings and loan bank ac­quired by JMMB Group in 2014.

The merg­er and in­te­gra­tion of both bank­ing en­ti­ties are ex­pect­ed to take place with­in the next six months, start­ing from Ju­ly 28, 2022, or based on op­er­a­tional readi­ness, whichev­er comes soon­er and based on the reg­u­la­to­ry ap­proval grant­ed by the mon­e­tary board of the Do­mini­can Re­pub­lic, JMMB said in a state­ment.

Kei­th Dun­can, CEO of JMMB Group said the ac­qui­si­tion and merg­er com­ple­ments the com­pa­ny’s re­gion­al di­ver­si­fi­ca­tion strat­e­gy as it seeks to lever­age op­er­a­tional ef­fi­cien­cies and syn­er­gies, in­tro­duce in­no­v­a­tive fi­nan­cial so­lu­tions, while ful­fill­ing the needs of clients across the Caribbean.

In a state­ment, the Group said it is now poised to ex­pand its range of of­fer­ings in the Do­mini­can Re­pub­lic, as an in­te­grat­ed fi­nan­cial ser­vices provider with this ap­proval.

“This is in line with our com­mit­ment to pur­sue in­or­gan­ic growth by con­stant­ly ex­plor­ing mar­ket op­por­tu­ni­ties that fit with­in the Group’s di­ver­si­fi­ca­tion strat­e­gy and deep­en­ing our mar­ket share in the coun­tries in which we op­er­ate,” the state­ment added.

Since start­ing op­er­a­tions in the Do­mini­can Re­pub­lic in 2007, JMMB Group’s op­er­a­tions in that coun­try now in­clude: stock­bro­ker­age-JMMB Puesto de Bol­sa S.A.; fund man­age­ment—JMMB Funds; sav­ings and loans bank—Ban­co Ahor­ro y Cred­i­to Rio (Ban­co Rio) and pen­sion fund ad­min­is­tra­tor —AFP JMMB BDI, S.A.

JMMB’s per­for­mance in the Do­mini­can Re­pub­lic has con­tin­ued to show pos­i­tive re­sults as ev­i­denced by its con­tri­bu­tion of 23 per cent, or J$2.8 bil­lion to the Group’s 2021/22 fi­nan­cial year net prof­it of J$12.02 bil­lion.

This strong per­for­mance in the Do­mini­can Re­pub­lic was un­der­scored by cred­it rat­ing agency, Pa­cif­ic Cred­it Rat­ing (PCR) which re­cent­ly up­grad­ed Ban­co Ahor­ro y Cred­i­to Rio (Ban­co Rio) JMMB Bank’s rat­ing to a BBB+ while the in­vest­ments arm, Puesto de Bol­sa, re­ceived an A- rat­ing from cred­it rat­ing agency, Feller Rate, the state­ment added.