FirstCaribbean International Bank has strengthened its senior management team in St. Kitts and Nevis with the appointment of G. Peter Edmunds as the Country Manager and Head of Corporate Banking. Edmunds, a native of St. Lucia, has been in the banking industry for the past 32 years after beginning his career with Barclays Bank in 1977. Since then, he has risen through a progression of senior management positions. Since assuming his new duties on March 8, Edmunds views his biggest challenge as ascertaining a way to improve the already high value of the brand. Accomplishing this goal will involve a commitment to excellence from all levels of the organization, as well as becoming more involved in the community. “We want to go out there and promote ourselves as good corporate citizens,” he said. Edmunds wants to make FirstCaribbean the bank of choice in both the commercial and retail arenas, and favors an assertive business development plan to get there. The new Country Manager can tout a wealth of experience in high-level bank management. He attained the position of Assistant Vice President in Corporate/Commercial Banking in 1989 after completing an 18-month management development program during a ten-year stint in New York. While residing in the Big Apple, he graduated from the City University of New York’s Baruch College with a B Sc. in Finance in 1991. Returning to the Caribbean in 1992, Edmunds further expanded his banking experience in the region By holding increasingly responsible managerial positions in the British Virgin Islands, the Cayman Islands, Dominica, St. Lucia, and St. Vincent and the Grenadines. In 2003, he moved to the Turks and Caicos Islands as the Country Manager and Head of Corporate Banking, a position he held for five years. As the Country Manager he held the ultimate responsibility for the smooth transition of the merger between the Canadian Imperial Banking Corporation (CIBC) and Barclays Bank, a challenge that Edmunds calls the toughest challenge in his career. “I had to keep up the confidence of our staff and reassure our customers through frequent one-on-one interactions,” he said. Edmunds is proud of the way the merger worked out, with an intact client base, and a high performing branch. “When I left in 2007, the Turks and Caicos branch was generating 12 percent of the bank’s overall profits,” he explained, noting further that an island nation of only 27,000 residents also supported the fifth largest ‘lending book’ in the 17-country organization. Before being appointed to his current position in St. Kitts and Nevis, Edmunds functioned as a Senior Corporate Manager in the Cayman Islands for almost two and a half years. As Head of Corporate Banking, he is tasked with administrating over commercial loans, and chairs the Country Management Committee. Edmunds is currently pursuing a Masters degree in Business Administration with Leicester University in the UK. He is also a member of the Global Association of Risk Professionals.
