ORANJESTAD, KRALENDIJK - The branch of Windward Island Bank (WIB) on St. Eustatius will cease to be a subsidiary of Windward Island Bank St. Maarten as of November 1, and will continue as a branch of Maduro & Curiels Bank (Bonaire) N.V.
Although both banks will continue to be part of the larger MCB group, the transfer of specifically the WIB Statia branch to the MCB Bonaire branch is a decision of the banking group to streamline the activities on the BES islands.
The transfer may also have a positive effect on customers on St. Eustatius. Until now, the experiment with the National Mortgage Guarantee could only be carried out on Bonaire, because banks that want to be eligible must be supervised by De Nederlandsche Bank (DNB). This is the case for MCB Bonaire, the only BES bank that is officially established on a BES island and is therefore supervised by DNB. The Island Council on St. Eustatius has been pressing for some time to extend the National Mortgage Guarantee to the Windward Island.
Merger
The operation of the Windward Island Bank on Sint Maarten will in turn be merged with the MCB Bank on Curaçao.
MCB and WIB promise that the merger of the WIB bank with MCB in Curaçao and the transfer of WIB customers on St. Eustatius and Saba to MCB Bonaire will not change the existing banking relationship with the customers on these islands.
MCB and WIB further say that the changes will better enable them to remain the main banking group in the Dutch Caribbean islands.