Trading of the securities issued by the Bank of The Bahamas (BOB) was suspended on Monday until further notice, as the bank seeks to fully ventilate its new posture following its liberation from $100 million in bad commercial debt and a "realignment" to focus on retail banking and consumer lending.
Bahamas International Securities Exchange Limited (BISX) executive Holland Grant stressed that the suspension of trading had been done at the bank's request. Grant noted that the bank had indicated that there was more information to come about its new direction, and had - as happens often in such cases - requested that its stock not be traded until the information had been fully absorbed in the marketplace.
"This actually happens quite frequently," Grant told Guardian Business. "Our duty is to make sure that investors are able to make informed decisions."
The government has indicated a very definite desire for the bank to take a new direction, exemplified by an announced restructuring.
Prime Minister Perry Christie said at the announcement of the establishment of Bahamas Resolve Ltd. - a new government entity formed to take $100 million in bad commercial debt off Bank of The Bahamas' books - on Friday, that the board of the bank had also been directed to assess the bank's management and cost structure and to submit recommendations to the government for management and administrative reorganization before the end of 2014.

Mechanics
While Christie asserted that no National Insurance or Public Treasury funds had been disbursed in the assignment of the loans to Resolve, he pointed out that liability for the debts had been transferred to Resolve, along with the benefit of the loans and the underlying security.
"As the new owner of the transferred loans, Resolve will be putting special mechanisms in place to assist in the collection of the overdue loans," the prime minister said.
Minister of State for Finance Michael Halkitis elaborated, to an extent. He said the value generated by the collection of the unpaid debts would benefit all Bahamians.
"We chose a 'made in The Bahamas' solution because it best serves our national interests while protecting Bank of The Bahamas depositors," Halkitis said. "Resolve will have both the mandate and the authority to use every tool at its disposal - be that financial, commercial or policy instruments - to collect payment for all unpaid debts."
The junior minister for finance noted that the government would announce which accounting firm - one with extensive experience managing non-performing loan portfolios - had been selected to partner with Resolve in collecting the outstanding debts "early [this] week".
"That firm will take over responsibility for the collection of unpaid debts immediately," Halkitis said.

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