History

Since its creation through the acquisition of an established Canadian bank in 1988, Bank of The Bahamas Limited has grown from $90 million in assets to $998.5 million as of June 30, 2024; from three locations to 12; from serving two islands to a presence on eight; from providing the most basic of retail banking services to the most comprehensive of financial products. Total equity has mushroomed from $19 million in 2000 to $199.7 million by June 30, 2024.

Bank of The Bahamas Limited was incorporated in The Commonwealth of The Bahamas on April 17, 1970 as Bank of Montreal (Bahamas & Caribbean) Limited. In 1983, its name was changed to Bank of Montreal Bahamas Limited. Five years later in September 1988, the Government of The Bahamas created a joint venture with Euro Canadian Bank Limited and purchased 100% of the shares of Bank of Montreal Bahamas Limited, and renamed it Bank of The Bahamas Limited with a 51% controlling interest.

During the second half of 1990, the Government purchased all of the shares held by Euro Canadian Bank Limited and issued an additional 7,000,000 shares, bringing the total number of shares issued to 10,000,000. During September 1994 the Government sold 20% of its Shareholding or 2,000,000 shares to the Bahamian public. In October 1995 the Government offered a further 3,000,000 shares of the Bank to the Bahamian public. Both offerings were substantially oversubscribed. In 2005, the Bank had an oversubscribed rights offering of $25 million and a subsequent $15 million private placement preference share offering in 2006.

Later branded as BOB, the Bank of Solutions, Bank of The Bahamas became synonymous with creating firsts in local retail banking: the first to introduce VISA gift and prepaid cards, the first local bank with comprehensive online banking and the first to offer e-mail and text alerts to notify customers of deposits, withdrawals, loan payment or other activity on their accounts. Its ATMS became the first 24/7 banking facilities in The Bahamas to offer a number of features including instructions in Braille and non-envelope deposit capability with immediate value for cash deposits.

Though relatively young, Bank of The Bahamas grew through acquisitions including the assets of Workers Bank Limited (2001) and the mortgage portfolio of Citibank (2007). In September 2016, the Bank’s $40,000,000 Rights Offering was fully subscribed and in December of the same year the Bank offered a private placement of $30,000,000 at 3.125% Fixed Rate Perpetual Contingent Convertible Bonds (“CoCo”) to accredited investors only. This private placement was offered in three tranches of $10,000,000 each. The first tranche was subscribed by and issued to the Government as at December 31, 2016. The offering closed on February 28, 2017 and effective June 30, 2017, the bond was converted to 6,756,756 voting common shares. As at June 30, 2025, the Bank’s total assets stood at $1.1 Billion and total equity was $228.5 million.