Central America and Caribbean's best bank 2020: BAC International Bank

Many of the small countries that make up the central American and Caribbean region are dependent on tourism for income. They will likely be hard hit this year. 

The relatively low – and narrow – fiscal base will compound the challenge to mitigate the depth of a coronavirus recession, but advances in regional growth in recent years give grounds for optimism. Where previously all countries tended to look outside the region (and mostly north to the US) for growth, intra-regional commerce has been spurred by the development of regional banking groups.

The largest of these regional banks is still BAC International Bank, the winner of the region’s best bank award again this year. The bank, led by chief executive Rodolfo Tabash, is a leader across markets, competing strongly where it doesn’t dominate, while its performance in aggregate is the benchmark for the other local banking groups.

The development of the bank’s strategy in 2017 has led to greater integration, beyond its new consistent branding: the deployment of a single digital platform has leveraged development costs throughout the markets in which it operates.