“We’re a regional bank with a growing global reach,” explains Group Chief Information & Digital Transformation Officer, Houston Ross. Republic Bank has been serving customers via its branches for over 185 years. Founded in Trinidad and Tobago, it grew regionally and now serves 16 different countries across the Caribbean and beyond from the Isle of Man to Ghana.
“Ours is a family-oriented culture, but, like most families, you don’t always hold each other accountable and can be a bit risk-adverse. That’s something we have to challenge in the right way with the right family dynamics as we look to transform the bank. Generations of families have worked at the bank so as we move forward with digitalisation we need to evolve with the market and take everybody – customers and colleagues – with us on the journey.”
Digital Transformation Program
“We’re 50% there in terms of people and 80% there when it comes to technology,” reflects Houston when considering the progress of Republic Bank’s transformation program. “We’ve been aiming to facilitate a shift from project to product – the traditional project mindset is stop/start. But when we talk about digitalisation it’s a journey that never ends. And product is the vehicle to make sure we’re continuously improving, enhancing, adapting to the market and adapting to customer needs, so we need to shift to a product-oriented way of working. We have to ensure the bank is in continuous evolution around the products and services that touch our customers.”
Change Management
Houston believes the biggest challenge with change is culture. “When I say culture, I’m talking about operating model, mindset, process, the whole thing. I am the first CIO the bank has hired. In some ways the bank is organised traditionally with general managers who move around the business. There hasn’t been a whole lot of change. Institutional knowledge is embedded so when you’re trying to change the culture, visibility, the ways of working and thinking, it will continue to be the biggest challenge – adapting to change is the gateway to embracing technology.”
2025 – A Year of Delivery and Accountability (YODA)
For Republic Bank, 2025 is all about YODA, the Year of Delivery and Accountability, as Houston’s team introduce technology that will move the dial for customers and colleagues across the bank’s empire. “We’ve been using this acronym because during my first two years we’ve been laying the foundation and doing the groundwork. This year it’s all about the big push. For example, we’re going to launch a virtual card in Guyana and then on to St. Lucia. My ambition is that we will be able to launch several cards throughout the year because we now have that continuous improvement capability. We’ll also be launching our new digital loan experience this year and rebuilding our mobile and banking apps as we move towards a super app offering in late 2025. Looking beyond to 2026 we will use our cloud and API strategy to start to build embedded banking mechanisms.”
