CHAIRMAN oF the NCB Financial Group (NCBFG) Michael Lee-Chin has sought to assure customers that they have “nothing to worry about” as he rings in changes throughout the group to make it more efficient and customer-friendly.

Lee-Chin, in an exclusive interview with the Jamaica Observer shortly after a terse notice was sent to the Jamaica Stock Exchange on Monday announcing he was cutting his three-month leave of absence short — having been able to attend to the matters that had occasioned the leave in less time than he had anticipated — noted: “It is unquestioned that the company remains strong. Customers and shareholders have nothing to worry about.”

His assurance comes after news emerged early Monday that his two most senior executives — Patrick Hylton, CEO of NCBFG, and Dennis Cohen, deputy CEO of the group — went on vacation leave for three weeks with speculation that it is a prelude to the two being separated from the group.

They went on leave after an emergency board meeting on Sunday.

Lee-Chin would not be drawn on the speculation in the interview with the Observer, even when it was pointed out that it is unusual for any company’s chief and deputy to be on vacation leave at the same time.

“Periodically, we all go on vacation,” Lee-Chin told the Observer. “So they are on vacation. I came back, and I came back with the background of Friday’s article [which was published in the Jamaica Observer] in which I said I am not happy, which I am not! I am not happy that shareholders have not gotten a dividend from the holding company, which is NCBFG. Shareholders have not gotten a dividend for the reasons I gave in that interview with you last week. Pensioners have not gotten a dividend, and I have not gotten a dividend for eight quarters,” he said.

However, on Monday night highly placed sources told the Observer that Lee-Chin already has an interim management team to take over from Hylton and Cohen which should be announced within the next three weeks.

The last time NCB Financial Group declared and paid a dividend was in May 2021. Lee-Chin, who prior to the dividend tap drying up, received more than US$30 million annually, except for a short period, between April 2020 and April 2021, in which the Bank of Jamaica mandated a suspension of dividend payments at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic as the effects of the disease ravaged the global economy.

However, on his return, Lee-Chin reiterated his solutions to the issue — creating a more efficient group, ensuring there is proper governance and focus on making the bank customer service friendly — as directives he has made that have to happen now.

“As the chairman, those are the three things I have mandated the board to focus on, and hence it will trickle down to the management of the businesses,” he added.

He also sought to downplay any impact the businesses might face with both his top executives being on vacation leave at the same time.

“At the end of the day, what is most important here would be the operating companies within the group. So you have NCBFG, which is a holding company, and the operating companies would be NCBJ, NCB Capital Markets, Guardian Holdings, Clarien Bank, and so on; so those are the operating businesses. Each operating business has a whole management staff, including CEOs and a board of directors. Each is a separate entity, strong and independent. In other words, NCB bank is independent from Guardian, which is independent from Clarien, and so on. They are all strong and independent in their own right. Then you have the group, which is the parent, and the parent is not an operating business,” he explained.

“NCBFG is just a holding company. Presiding in the holding company would be Patrick and Dennis specifically, and some other executives, and they just provide oversight on all the subsidiaries, they are not running the businesses,” he pointed out.

He told the Observer that, with his return, he will play a more active role in the day-to-day management of the company.

“The bank is a very important investment to me. There is a saying that the eye of the master fattens the calf. In other words, the person who owns the business has to make sure that he pays attention,” Lee-Chin said as he quoted a proverbial phrase that advises people not to entrust their business to the care of outside hands, which will tend to try less when the owner’s eye is not there to watch over them.

“I’ve always been involved at the board level as the chairman, from the get-go, but at the same time, because I am the major shareholder, and as the chairman, I have to be involved in what is happening at the business level also,” he said.

“I am the largest shareholder. I control the bank. So I have never been just passive, I can’t be passive; I am the major shareholder. So, nothing is going to change. I am not going to be passive, because I have never been passive,” he said, signalling a more active role akin to an executive chairman.

However, he said he won’t be managing the business on a day-to-day basis, “because being, as I say, the financial group is not something that needs day-to-day hands on management. That’s not the case.”

Asked again if him taking a more active role in the running of the business is a signal that neither Hylton nor Cohen will return to the fold after their vacation, Lee-Chin was more strident.

“Let me put it bluntly. Patrick and Dennis are on vacation. They are still with the institution as we speak, but are on vacation. People go on vacation every day. Remember, they are not the heads of the operating companies, they work out of the financial group, which is not the operating businesses. So, I cannot say that [them being on vacation] is a prelude to them being ushered out. I can say they are on vacation, and my focus is on making the group more efficient, with better governance and improved customer service.”

Calls to both Hylton’s and Cohen’s cellular phones seeking comment went unanswered.

Asked if they will only be on leave for three weeks, Lee-Chin replied, “I don’t know, that is their choice.”

The same response was given when he was asked if either or both are expected to be at the company’s next board meeting, which should take place in early August.

“I don’t know, that’s their choice.”

Lee-Chin, however, said he would ask that people not participate in cheap talk that would make anyone feel uncomfortable and outlined that the bank can operate as is.

“I would have done a very bad job as chairman if I was hit by a bus and the whole operation crashed. There is no one person, including me, who a financial institution of the magnitude of NCB should depend on, and we don’t,” he said.