Finance Minister Dr. Nigel Clarke and South East St. Ann MP, Lisa Hanna, clashed this week when Hanna inaccurately suggested that in 2019 the National Commercial Bank Jamaica Limited made over $70 billion in net income and that the sum was primarily generated from bank fees.
Hanna made the statement on social media on Wednesday, recently in her Jamaica Observer column and repeated it in the House of Representatives earlier this week.
The Opposition MP used the allegation to criticize the Government for not doing enough about the issue of bank fees.
Minister Clarke moved to clarify.
The finance minister told Ms. Hanna that she was confusing the consolidated gross income of the NCB Financial Group – which includes all its banking and non-banking related operations in other Caribbean countries – with the net income solely generated by NCB Jamaica Limited, the commercial and retail bank.
Minister Clarke told Miss Hanna that there is no bank in Jamaica which made over $70 billion in net income in the time frame she had referenced.
Dr. Nigel Clarke.
But Miss Hanna insisted that she had spoken accurately and NCB Jamaica Limited made over $70 billion in net income from its banking operations in Jamaica.
Lisa Hanna speaking in the House of Representatives earlier this week.
Miss Hanna took to Twitter last evening and doubled down on her suggestion that NCB Jamaica Limited made over $70 billion in net income for 2019.
The MP also went on to lament that despite making that alleged sum in net income, with 52 per cent of that figure being in interest rate spread, NCB Jamaica Limited continues to physically close branches and collect significant fees from customers.
Minister Clarke responded on Twitter and showed Hanna a copy of NCB’s public financial records.
He told the Opposition MP he’s shocked by her erroneous data and noted that the document revealed that the over $70 billion she referred to was NCB Financial Group’s consolidated gross income before over $60 billion in operating expenses were subtracted.
Clarke noted that the over $70 billion figure includes NCB financial group’s operations across the region and is not synonymous with the net income of NCB Jamaica Limited, the commercial and retail bank.
The finance minister pointed out to Hanna that NCB Jamaica Limited’s net income for 2019 was closer to $13 billion and not over $70 billion as she had claimed. Dr. Clarke noted that this figure includes a $7 billion gain from the sale of JMMB shares in 2019.
During the exchange on Twitter, Minister Clarke noted that Hanna had also made a similar error in a newspaper column.
Checks by our news centre of NCB’s public financial records confirmed that NCB Jamaica Limited’s net income for 2019 was approximately $13 billion, approximately $60 billion fewer than Hanna had alleged in Parliament, on social media and in her newspaper column.
