PATRICK HYLTON, former managing director of the state-owned Financial Sector Adjustment Company (FINSAC), has taken up duties at the National Commercial Bank (NCB) as deputy managing director.
His appointment took effect just over a week ago and he will be in charge of managing the affairs of NCB's corporate banking, information technology, projects and services, treasury and correspondent banking divisions, as well as co-ordinate all subsidiary affairs of the group.
Aubyn Hill, NCB's managing director, in confirming Mr. Hylton's appointment, said the new position has been under consideration since July, last year, a few months after Michael Lee-Chin, chairman of the Canadian-based mutual funds, AIC, acquired FINSAC's majority stake in the bank.
Corporate banking, which is used to define large accounts, is relatively new to NCB and was one of the divisions created as a result of a management reorganisation during the past year to achieve greater efficiency.
In presenting his report to shareholders during the bank's recent annual general meeting in Kingston, Mr. Hill said the Information Technology Division, another new unit, would provide the electronic network over which information will pass. The Treasury and Correspondent Banking Division, which deals with management of the bank's resources, was also rearranged.
Mr. Hill said the reorganisation of those and other divisions "seeks to ensure that the principle of individual accountability as well as divisional accountability become a normal occurrence in our everyday business life."
In addition to those responsibilities, Mr. Hylton will also take charge of subsidiary affairs of the group, including Omni Insurance, the stockbrokerage and investment arm, Edward Gayle & Company, as well as West Indies Trust Company (WITCo), the pension fund management division.
Mr. Hylton said that despite the NCB appointment, he remained part of a two-man task force chosen by Finance and Planning Minister Dr. Omar Davies to make recommendations of how best practices employed in the private sector can be used to trim expenditure levels in the Government.
Dr. Davies, who appointed the task force in April, gave Mr. Hylton and Chris Bicknell, chief executive officer of Tankweld, a minimum target of one per cent saving on the Government's $90 billion non-debt expenditure for fiscal year 2003/2004.
Mr. Hylton, a banker, shot to public prominence in the 1990s when he was given the task to head a team that would see to the rehabilitation of Jamaica's financial sector, following the meltdown of the 1990s.
He continued in the role of managing director of FINSAC until the organisation was wound up last year. He was responsible for resolving problems of liquidity and solvency experienced by a number of commercial banks, including NCB, as well as merchant banks and insurance companies through a process of restructuring, reorganisation, rationalisation and revitalisation of the sector.
