Barclays Bank plc and CIBC West Indies Holdings announced today that they have completed the combination of their Caribbean retail, corporate and international banking operations into FirstCaribbean International Bank.

FirstCaribbean received final approvals from Caribbean governments, regulators and shareholders, and the bank has begun its first day of operations under its new name. The new firm currently operates in 13 of the 15 countries in which Barclays and CIBC West Indies have had a presence.

The two countries not included in the announcement at this time are Grenada and the British Virgin Islands, where bank officials are continuing to address some outstanding issues. Until these issues have been addressed the BVI and Grenada branches will continue to operate as branches of Barclays.

Through the combined operations of CIBC West Indies and Barclays, FirstCaribbean will have one of the largest capital bases of any Caribbean bank. The four key lines of business will be retail banking, commercial banking, international banking as well as large corporate and capital markets. Additionally, FirstCaribbean plans to deliver a wider range of products through more banking channels, including telephone banking, ATMs and eventually Internet banking.

As part of the transaction, CIBC West Indies has been renamed FirstCaribbean International Bank Limited and will retain its listings in Barbados, Trinidad and Tobago and Jamaica. FirstCaribbean also maintains the existing listings of CIBC Bahamas Limited in the Bahamas and CIBC Jamaica Limited in Jamaica. The names have been changed accordingly. All CIBC West Indies subsidiaries have been renamed under the FirstCaribbean International banner and the Barclays businesses across the Caribbean and The Bahamas have been added to the FirstCaribbean family.

Under the terms of the transaction, Barclays and CIBC each own 45% of the voting common shares in FirstCaribbean, with the remainder held publicly. Barclays and CIBC intend to increase the local public holding in FirstCaribbean to 20% over time.

Customer accounts of both Barclays Private Bank and the Wealth Management business of CIBC and its subsidiaries are not affected because the combination does not extend to these businesses.