When financial analysts argue about whether economies of scale exist in cross border retail banking, they simply need to point to BAC International Bank (BAC). Led by Rodolfo Tabash, the bank is a big player in all the regional markets and, while these are small individually, together they total more than 50 million people.

The successful growth of BAC International Bank throughout central America and the Caribbean region led to the bank being spun off from parent Banco de Bogotá. Although the bank is no longer part of this group – it has its own listing in Panama – the primary shareholders remain Banco de Bogotá and Luis Carlos Sarmiento Angulo, chief executive of Grupo Aval.

BAC International Bank has been serious about corporate responsibility for many years. In February this year the bank joined the United Nations Environment Programme Finance Initiative, complementing its longstanding commitment to the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals. BAC has now reached over one million people in central America with its financial education programme and has supported over 120,000 SMEs throughout the region with training, development and network initiatives.

BAC International Bank is simply the biggest and most profitable bank in central America and the Caribbean. Across the region it has 311 full service branches, 11 in-store branches, eight digital branches and 43 drive-through agencies – and it also has the largest ATM network, with more than 2,000.

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.

Economic growth is strengthening in central American and the Caribbean. The IMF expects the region to grow at about 2% this year and 2.5% next year.

BAC International Bank introduced a new brand for its network across central America, but in all other aspects it was business as usual.

The recent trend for growth among local pan-regional banks continues and, in the last year, Grupo Financiero Ficohsa’s acquisition of Citi’s banks in Honduras and Nicaragua shows that it may well be a challenger in the future for BAC International Bank, which retains this year’s award for the best bank in central America and the Caribbean.

Results index There has been a pronounced trend for pan-regional banking franchises in central America and the Caribbean in recent years. Local and regional banks are using the exit of universal banks such as Citi and HSBC to consolidate. This competition for regional platforms is good news for the individual economies, many of which have in the past had a myopic focus on the US for developing business and trade. Deepening financial ties within the region offers pan-regional growth as another strategy.