Bahamas News
BAHAMAS: RBC launches new advisory and consultancy business for Caribbean business, corporate, and Private Banking clients
#Bahamas, March 10, 2021 – Royal Bank of Canada (RY on TSX and NYSE) (“RBC”) today announced the launch of RBC Caribbean Financial Advisory Services (“CFAS”) – a new business line offering expert financial consulting advice to business clients and corporate clients across the Caribbean.
CFAS will offer consultancy services in mergers and acquisitions, financial consulting, and debt and equity financing. These services are designed to meet the needs of Corporate Banking, Business Banking, and Private Banking clients, in addition to governments and public agencies throughout the region.
“With the addition of CFAS, these clients now have access to a one-stop-shop for their financing and advisory needs,” said Darryl White, CEO, RBC Financial (Caribbean) Limited and Regional Vice President, Corporate Banking. “This adds to our already-robust suite of financial solutions and is yet another way we can stand out from our competition. As one of the ten largest banks globally based on market capitalization, RBC is uniquely positioned to leverage the talent and expertise of over 90,000 employees in 36 countries and territories to help businesses and organizations with a variety of critical services essential to their operations and continued growth.”
Two Vice Presidents will oversee RBC’s new CFAS business in the region. Marc Jardine will be responsible for the Southern Caribbean (Trinidad and Tobago, Barbados, and the Dutch Caribbean) and Jerry Butler will be responsible for the Northern Caribbean (The Bahamas, Turks and Caicos Islands, and The Cayman Islands). Jardine is a seasoned corporate banking executive, having held several senior roles in Corporate Finance, Risk Management, Origination, and Financial Analysis.
News Release Butler’s professional experience in public accounting, wealth management, and financial services spans more than 30 years across a variety of roles based in NewYork, Europe, and the Caribbean. “We believe that this new business is a real opportunity for newand existing Caribbean clients to take full advantage of RBC’s reputation as a world-leader in comprehensive financial and advisory solutions,” said Joe Olivier, Regional Vice President, High Net Worth Clients, Caribbean.
“As we expand our Corporate, Business, and Private Banking financial offerings to include this consultative business advice, it grants our clients access to a robust suite of solutions to help them grow, thrive, and prosper.”
RBC was named as Global Finance Magazine’s Best Private Bank in the Caribbean, along with Best Private Bank for Families and Best Private Bank for Entrepreneurs. The bank was also named Latin American and Caribbean Retail Bank of the Year by Retail Banker International.
Release: RBC
Dana Malcolm
Staff Writer
#TheBahamas, March 17, 2023 – The FBI is investigating a woman’s ‘suspicious’ death on a Carnival Cruise ship in February. The unnamed woman and her husband boarded the Carnival Sunshine on February 27th, for a trip to the Bahamas, but she was dead before they arrived in the port in The Bahamas. 
The FBI said Carnival’s team had administered life saving measures when the woman was reported unresponsive, but they were unsuccessful. The body and the woman’s husband were released to the Bahamian authorities when the cruise arrived in the country.
In a statement shared with US media houses, Carnival Cruises claimed the death has been a natural one. The Nassau Guardian said a source told them the police findings had concurred with that assessment saying it was a “normal sudden death of a tourist who wasn’t feeling well.”
The FBI was waiting for the cruise and when it got back to South Carolina on March 4th, they immediately boarded and began to investigate the room based on ‘evidence of a crime.’ The FBI also searched the couple’s car.
No updates have been shared to contradict the currently established cause of death.
Dana Malcolm
Staff Writer
#TheBahamas, March 17, 2023 – “If you don’t like it, go to another beach!” Is what Aaron John, an Education Officer from The Bahamas National Trust jokingly tells our news team about sargassum blooms; his quip, motivated by the necessity of nature when pit against the notion that there is a real threat when the stinky seaweed makes its annual appearance.
John can admit, he says, that Sargassum isn’t very pretty but life isn’t all about aesthetics and in this instance that ugly patch serves a purpose.
“We love our sandy beaches, but in order to keep them we need Sargassum. When storms come, they wash away all the sand off the beach but sargassum acts as a mulch to protect the sand from water erosion. It doesn’t look good, it
doesn’t feel good but we need it.”
He said it also provides a habitat for small crustaceans, crabs, and insects that are all necessary to our ecosystem and islanders have found use for the weed.
“Historically, (in The Bahamas) we have been using sargassum as fertilizer, especially in the family Islands as far back as I know,” he said. “Birds don’t go on the beach unless there is Sargassum and what do they do? they feed – it’s beautiful.”
He encouraged residents to just leave it be if they came across it.
Sargassum isn’t harmful to humans, except for people with respiratory issues who may find the rotten egg smell triggers asthma. Despite this, it’s not advisable to walk through the weeds which may hide sharp rocks and bottles or vulnerable animals.
Experts say Sargassum blooms began to increase in size around 2011 and have continued to get bigger and bigger since. This year‘s bloom is around 5000 miles long and 300 miles wide and visible from space.
“I know it’s not a general outlook, but I would like to change the perspective on sargassum,” John said, pointing out The Bahamas National Trust is actively working to decrease alarm over the less worrisome events like sargassum as it raises the profile on the environmentally devastating.
Dana Malcolm
Staff Writer
#TurksandCaicos, March 17, 2023 – The Turks and Caicos’ Bahamas Diaspora Office is moving closer and closer to opening day, following the Cabinet’s approval for the signing of a lease agreement.
The lease will be signed with FINCEN ltd in the Bahamas. Several weeks ago, Arlington Musgrove, Minister of Immigration confirmed to our news team that the location had been found and was being finalized; now a lease is
approved at the Cabinet level.
The interest in the TCI from TC Bahamians was evident in the diaspora meetings held in early February. The two meetings held in Nassau and Grand Bahama were completely full and over-subscribed by hundreds.
It’s interest which the Government hopes will translate to real life population growth, bolstering the local population before the native population ‘goes extinct’.
The Opposition PDM is on the record with what it feels is a far more viable solution to a dwindling native population; seek out the country’s own citizens and bring them back home.
Cabinet did not state when the office will open.
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