Development Bank launches new products aimed at enhancing delivery of services

Basseterre, St. Kitts — The Development Bank of St. Kitts and Nevis will on Friday November 29 launch three new products that will enhance its delivery of services to its current and future customers.

General Manager, Mr Lenworth Harris, has said that over the years the Development Bank of St. Kitts and Nevis has sought to find ways and means to improve the quality of service delivery to its customers, and also to develop products that it thinks would assist them in achieving their goals.

Friday November 29 marks such an effort for the Development Bank, as it will be re-launching its website that will have new features as the world becomes more digitalised, two products that will introduce its clients to the world of cashless society, and an investment product aimed at providing future security for persons seeking tertiary education for their children/wards.

The launch will be held simultaneously at the bank’s headquarters at the corner of Church and Central Streets in Basseterre, St. Kitts, and at the Nevis branch office in the Ward Building along the Island Main Road in Stoney Grove. Starting at 9 am, members of staff at both offices have been prepared in anticipation of an influx of the bank’s clients and prospective clients.

The Bank will be launching a Student Card, which is a MasterCard Prepaid Debit Card that has been developed in collaboration with the St. Kitts-Nevis-Anguilla National Bank, Mr Harris advised.

He explained that the card would enable the Bank’s clients to enjoy a much improved and a much more efficient disbursement process, as they can use it to access their funds in a convenient manner when they need to pay their tuition or take care of their normal maintenance while they are abroad studying.

The Development Bank, according to Mr Lenworth Harris, will be introducing the point of sale terminal that is aimed at serving its card holding customers for use in making the payments to the Bank. He observed that it will provide greater security as clients will no longer need to carry cash, and that eliminates any likelihood of losing the money.

“The acceptance of payment by debit and credit cards offer is an excellent opportunity for our clients who may be overseas, or students,” explained Mr Harris. “What they can do is to put what we term as credit or debit card standing orders in place.”

The Bank has come up with a new investment product that will also be launched on Friday. According to the General Manager, the product known as Student Loan Investment Programme (SLIP) is an investment product for future students, by a parent/guardian for their child/ward from an early age, even before birth.

According to Mr Harris, it is an excellent product for the future, whose slogan is ‘plant a SLIP today for a bountiful harvest tomorrow’. The Development Bank is encouraging all parents and guardians “to plant that SLIP in fertile soils, as it will be planted in the Development Bank for your children.”

A SLIP account essentially qualifies the prospective student for benefits from the bank in terms of some concessions and interest rates, and a guaranteed loan once they have this facility.

“This Friday we will also be re-launching our website (www.skndb.com),” said Mr Harris. “The website would have a number of new features, where application forms would be available online for clients, specifically student loans’ application forms.”

He revealed that the new website will for the first time be providing a platform for the Development Bank’s business clients to promote their products free of cost.

“We, as a bank, have done great things,” concluded Mr Harris. “In addition to these things the bank still remains at work. During the last 12 to 14 months we have done up to $26 million in mortgages and that is commendable.

“So you are talking close to 100 new houses constructed that would have generated much needed economic impetus. We continue to serve the public and we will continue to do so. We are just trying to find better ways to deliver our services to the public.”