Campbell takes bigger role, but new VM still emerging
On track towards becoming a financial holding company, VM Group Limited has now created a new vehicle for its banking and financial assets, but is still in the process of restructuring.
Under the new mandated structure for banking conglomerates, the building society, or mortgage bank, is officially no longer at the head of the group. Instead, it has become one of the assets that make up a new holding company called VM Financial Group Limited, or VMFG.
That new VMFG subsidiary will be headed by Courtney Campbell as CEO, alongside his role as President & CEO of VM Group Limited. All financial groups that own a bank are mandated by the central bank to separate their non-banking operations from the banking, or deposit-taking, firms. VM Group, which formerly held all its businesses under Victoria Mutual Building Society, is one of several large fincos that have either completed or are going through the transition.
VM Group will retain its designation as a mutual company. Accordingly, the voting rights of members of the 144-year-old building society will be transferred to VM Group Limited.
The new VMFG is now the direct parent of VM Building Society, which offers savings and loan products; VM Investments Limited, a publicly listed company offering financial services through securities dealer and investment firm VM Wealth Management Limited; VMBS Money Transfer Services Limited, a remittance payment company; VM Pensions Management Limited, a manager of pension fund assets; and VM Finance, which operates in the United Kingdom and offers development loans in the UK market.
Affiliate businesses British Caribbean Insurance Company, a general insurer, and Carilend, an online microlending platform, will also fall under VMFG. The Carilend stake is held by VM Investments.
“The group is better positioned to expand and fortify its footprint in Jamaica and overseas, ensuring that more people have access to life-enhancing financial products and services,” Campbell said.
The financial conglomerate has said the new structure will give the parent operation, VM Group Limited, which is a non-banking entity, greater flexibility to raise and deploy capital across its various business lines.
Amid the ongoing restructuring, VM Group has also created a holding entity for its non-financial assets, VM Innovations Limited, under which businesses such as VM Property Services fall.
The changes to the group have been in the works since 2019, but the execution began in late 2021, when Jamaica was slowly easing itself out of COVID-19 pandemic protocols.
Campbell says VM Group has invested over $2 billion in effecting technological transformations to “drive greater innovation across business lines” and deliver new products and services.
Over the past two years, VM Group has witnessed a slew of management changes. Most have gone unnoticed, except those at VM Investments, which is obliged to report material management changes in compliance with reporting rules for companies listed on the Jamaica Stock Exchange.
The more recent changes include Campbell’s assumption of a second role as CEO of VMFG, Paul Elliott’s promotion to CEO of VM Building Society, and Peter Reid’s promotion to deputy CEO of VM Group. Maurice Barnes heads up VM Innovations.
The new VM Financial Group Limited now holds 90 per cent of the businesses in the 144-year-old financial conglomerate that was valued overall in 2021 at $192 billion by assets and $11 billion by revenue. The building society alone accounted for $167 billion of the group’s assets as at September 2022.
“This corporate structure is unlike the dominant ownership setup in the local environment,” said Campbell.
“(Mutuality) is at the core of our founding purpose and this structure allows us to continue to provide transformational products and services, while having our members retain ownership of the organisation that was created for them and that has served them over generations,” he said.
VM has previously said it expects to complete its restructuring by the end of this year. Two years after, by 2025, it expects to triple its membership base from 330,000 to one million.