BELIZE CITY, Weds. Mar. 31, 2021– The end of an era was witnessed on Friday, March 31, as branches of Scotiabank Belize removed its logo from its locations nationwide.

This is a part of the 12-18-month transition being undertaken by Caribbean Investments Holdings Limited (CIHL), an Ashcroft company which is the parent company for Belize Bank, as it merges the assets of the Bank of Nova Scotia Belize Limited with those of Belize Bank.

This merger will make Belize Bank (which will hold 37% of all loans and 36% of all deposits in the local financial system at the completion of the merger) the largest financial institution in the country.

The bank said that this merger will not only extend the reach of its banking operation in Belize but will also play an integral part in the creation of a Pan-Caribbean banking group.

The Bank of Nova Scotia has operated in Belize for 52 years and is leaving the jurisdiction as part of an overall scaling back of its operations within the region. The bank has also decided to leave various other Caribbean countries.

The customers of Scotiabank are not expected to be affected by the transition, as the two entities are working together to make the transition as seamless as possible. All services to these customers will continue to be provided from the current offices of the Scotiabank branch where they would typically do their banking, but operations will be carried out under the name “Belize Bank Corporation Limited”.

The banks are in the process of integrating their core banking systems as a major part of the transition at this time.