It seems First Caribbean just suffered a brain drain, with George Thomas, Lee-Anne O’Selmo and Rik Parkhill now in strategic posts of the neobank Sagicor Bank, while mMoney lost Rawdon Adams since he’s now an Independent Director at Sagicor Bank. It is clear innovations that could’ve bolstered FCIB or the Bitt subsidiary are now Sagicor’s gain.

Sagicor Bank is new in the sense of how its banking is done, but it’s based on their well over a century of experience as a financial stronghold. With a soft launch of their App since March this year, the response has been satisfying, especially when people learn accounts can be created with zero dollars and no monthly fees as the Chief Client Officer confirmed (AUDIO CLIP)

The two executives were speaking from Sagicor Bank’s Corporate Centre in Worthing over the weekend, this is the same facility which was an erstwhile Parliament while the original House of Assembly was under renovations. Then the possibility of microloans for Entrepreneurs was found to be under active consideration, this was confirmed by Sagicor Bank’s CEO when the question was laid out (AUDIO CLIP)

They said enrolling via phone should be no more than 10 minutes, unfortunately my phone is under Android 8 and therefore some hiccoughs happened (time for a new device LOL), simply put? Please remember to take off your glasses when doing a selfie for facial verification to your ID, also make sure it is completed in a well-lit area with minimal background distractions as in, use a plain wall.

Part of the reason they can remove monthly fees and simplify procedures is there are no tellers and (so far) eight ABM’s across the island. Monies used for salaries instead is redirected towards cloud security. The app is under constant scrutiny and its keypad is confusing as the numbers change every time you log in to prevent any one guessing your configuration based in how you press numbers.

You can create new accounts via the phone app (Apple or Google versions available), and among them you can create a Fixed Deposit with 2.5% interest if left to mature for 24 months. Their call centre is open every day from 8:00 am until 12 Noon and just call (246) 228-7225. Real Time transfers and full Point Of Sale usage should be islandwide in 30 days or less…

Banks can pay to your Sagicor account, and you can transfer monies from it to other banks, unlike mMoney limitations. It seems Barbados is the pilot at the moment, once things roll out well here, they will look to expand to other territories, but the indications were rather cryptic as most banking facilities do…