Bank Licences.
Offshore Bank licences in Belize
Bank licences. In the Belize Offshore Banking Act includes information on the different classes of banking licenses that exist and the associated capitalisation requirements (PART III of the Act).
Bank licences – 1st step.
The first step is for the client to meet with the Central Bank of Belize.
We can assist in setting up such a meeting. You should ensure that, at a minimum, the group that attends the meeting with the Central Bank includes at least one senior banker with broad experience in the banking industry, ideally with considerable international banking experience. If more than one member of the group representing the applicant has these credentials that would be better still.
We recommend you prepare the best presentation possible for the Central Bank in accordance with the comments below. The decision of the Central Bank is likely to be strongly influenced by this initial meeting, which will set the tone for the entire application process.
Bank licences – ‘fit and proper’ criteria
The Central Bank will evaluate the applicants using a ‘fit and proper’ criteria as well as the proposed business of the intended bank. The persons representing the applicant must demonstrate the ability to provide the strategic leadership necessary to make the bank successful and profitable in the international banking business. The Central Bank will look for qualifications, both educational and professional, as well as the broad banking experience in the applicant’s management team. It will focus on core competencies in the management team that will give the new bank the foundation for success and ensure that it is operated in a prudent and effective manner, within the guidelines of the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision and all local banking regulations.
(Two separate attachments are provided that outline the Basel Principles that would be applied by the central Bank and upon which the application will be judged.)
Bank licences – formal application and specified requirements
At the conclusion of this initial meeting, the Central Bank decide if they are sufficiently comfortable with the visiting team to allow them to proceed to a formal application for a banking license in Belize. If they are, then the application forms for the license will be given to the applicant for completion.
Once completed and submitted, the application would then be reviewed by the Central Bank. Obviously all of the specified requirements must be met. Additional related information could also be presented within the context of the application to strengthen it, for example by demonstrating the expertise of the applicant’s management team and their plan for success as a bank in Belize as well as pro forma financial statements and projections, typically for five years.
If you wish to begin this bank licensing process, we would suggest that you forward the C.V.’s of the intended key personnel of the proposed bank for our review. After any necessary discussion, we will then initiate the actual process by introducing the applicant to the Central Bank of Belize and scheduling the initial meeting.
We are able to arrange local logistic support for the applicant’s representatives when they are in Belize, including making hotel reservations and providing additional information on Belize to facilitate the visit of the license applicant. We will be pleased to assist however we can to support the client-applicants and make them as comfortable as possible during their time in Belize.
