Ansa Bank welcomes its first customer

ANSA Bank opened its doors to its first customer on Tuesday morning on their first day of business.

Their first customer was Raj Singh who had been a Bank of Baroda customer for about 19 months.

“The service is very good. I like the colour and decor. It has totally changed. I like the new environment. It looks nice,” Singh said.

Managing director of Ansa Bank Robert Le Hunte was the first to greet Singh as he entered the bank's branch in Port of Spain. He presented Singh with a token of gratitude and congratulated him on being Ansa Bank’s first customer.

Le Hunte told Newsday Ansa Bank intends to invest heavily in technology to provide online channels for financial transactions.

“The banking industry is being transformed and disrupted. The pandemic has hastened that disruption toward digital services. A lot of banks have created digital channels, but there is a difference between commercial banks with digital channels and a digital bank. Our goal is to create a digital bank which will allow us to provide services and conveniences to the customers of TT way beyond what they have experienced,” Le Hunte said.

He said the decision to be a digital bank would allow it to “bank the unbankable” – those people who do not have access to banking services.

“We see this as also working with the government’s thrust to digitisation,” he said.

On March 1 the bank officially began operating as Ansa Bank – a subsidiary of Ansa Merchant Bank Group – after being acquired from the Bank of Baroda in 2019, buying 100 per cent of the interest in Bank of Baroda TT Ltd.

Its three branches in San Fernando, Chaguanas and Port of Spain had its signage changed over the holiday weekend.