90 per cent of B-dollar accounts hold less than $10,000
NASSAU, BAHAMAS- There were just under 14,000 additional Bahamian dollar accounts in 2018 compared to the previous year, according to an annual report by the Deposit Insurance Corporation (DIC).
The annual report was tabled in Parliament yesterday, and also noted 90 per cent of Bahamian dollar accounts hold balances below $10,000.
“Total assets of the DIC stood at $56.4 million at December 31, 2018 increasing by 11 per cent since the prior year and 55 per cent over the last five years,” it read.
“At year end 2018 approximately 87.7 per cent of Bahamian dollar accounts held balances below $10,000 which constituted 5.91 per cent of the total value.
“Deposits between $10,000 and $50,000 comprised 7.88 per cent of total accounts and 10.91 per cent of the overall value, while balances in excess of $50,000 represented 4.36 per cent of accounts and 83.17 per cent of the aggregate value.”
The reported added: “Based on the maximum insurance coverage per depositor an estimated 96 per cent of deposit accounts in member institutions were insured by deposit insurance.
“During 2018 there were approximately 408,099 Bahamian dollar denominated demand, savings and fixed deposit accounts as compared to 394, 225 in 2017,” the report stated, an addition of 13,874 accounts.
The DIC is a public corporation, established under the Protection of Depositors Act, 1999 (the Act) which insures eligible deposits up to a maximum of $50,000 for any single deposit made with its 11 member institutions in case of their failure. The DIC is financed by annual premiums levied on member institutions.
“With growth in insurable deposits in the system, premiums collected from member institutions totaled $3.15 million in 2018, an increase of eight per cent over the previous year,” its report stated.
The DIC was created in 1999 following the collapse of Gulf Union Bank (Bahamas). Members as at March last year include Ansbacher (Bahamas) Limited, Bank of The Bahamas Limited; The Bank of Nova Scotia Trust Company (Bahamas) Limited; Citibank N.A; Commonwealth Bank Limited; Fidelity Bank (Bahamas) Limited; Finance Corporation of Bahamas Limited; FirstCaribbean International Bank (Bahamas) Limited; RBC Royal Bank (Bahamas) Limited; Royal Fidelity Merchant Bank & Trust Limited and Scotiabank (Bahamas) Limited.
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