Chorvelle Johnson-Cunningham has enjoyed a reputation as a talented banker for years.

After leaving Proven, she took up position as CEO of Sagicor Bank Jamaica in 2018.

At that time, Sagicor Bank was back in the pecking order as the leading juggernauts refused to concede market share. They appeared to be unstoppable trains.

Johnson-Cunningham remained undaunted and set about making Sagicor Bank a force in the local sector.

Last week, Sagicor Group Jamaica released its unaudited financial results for Q1 2024, posting a net profit of J$1 billion.

One of the standout performances for the period under review was Sagicor Bank Jamaica under the stewardship of Chorvelle Johnson-Cunningham. 

Sagicor Bank posted a net profit of J$503 million with a 15 per cent increase in revenues. It also saw greater transaction volumes in its card payments portfolios and loan portfolios. In fact, new loans of $10.24 billion (an increase on the $8.25 billion written in 2023) were a big driver of its profit numbers for Q1, 2024. Deposits grew by $4.19 billion, a significant jump on the figure for that line for the same period last year. 

Its regulatory capital to risk-weighted assets ratio now stands at 13.1 per cent whereas it was 12. 9 per cent for the correspondent period of 2023. The minimum statutory requirement here is 10 per cent.

Speaking at a press briefing held at Sagicor’s Kingston headquarters last week, Sagicor Group Jamaica’s president and CEO Christopher Zacca gave credit to Chorvelle’s leadership and singled out the bank’s performance. 

“In banking, we have Chorvelle who is smiling today because her unit continues to show strong performance and has done so for the last three years. Deposits grew by five per cent year-over-year and that’s in a tough period. We all know what is going on in the world in terms of liquidity and interest rates. These results here indicate strong confidence in Sagicor Bank. Three or four years ago there were complaints levelled at Sagicor Bank by our clients but under Chorvelle that has become negligible. I think the fact that they are excellent bankers as well as having a heart, has made a difference in how  Sagicor bank is perceived by the communities, ” said Zacca. 

Giving an overview of the bank’s performance, Chorvelle Johnson-Cunningham shared, “ At Sagicor Bank we pride ourselves on being in our clients’ corner. This means we have to be consistently listening to our clients. We are not 100 per cent perfect here but if a client comes in and says we don’t like what you are doing, then we have to fix it.  There is a number in the branch where the client can call the CEO to address any matters. That being said, while other banks were closing branches, we opened our first ‘phygital’ branch earlier this year. ‘Phygital’ means physical with a digital option, where millennials can use the digital aspects rather than the more traditional face-to-face method.”

“We have paid particular attention to women in business aware that SMEs play a major role in the growth of Jamaica and that is a part of the overall Sagicor vision. We are doing more work on our mortgages, including those around environmental solutions (solar, planting trees).

“There are banking clients from other houses who are unhappy where they are and the quality of service they receive. We are acquiring new customers and taking market share. Our pipelines for mortgages and corporates are huge,” said Johnson-Cunningham.

In terms of the least non-performing loans in the local sector, Sagicor Bank remains on top with under two per cent.

Key Sagicor Bank indicators:

• Total loan growth: 5.34 per cent, J$6.41B billion

• Mortgage growth: 1.45 per cent, J$226 million quarter-over-quarter

• Corporate and business loan growth: 3.34 per cent, $J2.33 billion

• Rate of growth in bad loan ratio (NPL ratio): Reduction by 1.55 per cent, from 1.29 per cent to 1.27 per cent.