Ms. Minna Israel, President and Country Head of RBTT Bank Jamaica Ltd., was unanimously elected as the President of the Jamaica Bankers Association (JBA) at the JBA’s Annual General Meeting held on Thursday, May 21, 2009.  This is an historic event for the JBA given that Ms. Israel is the first female to be elected president of the Association since its incorporation in 1967. 

The other members of the executive who were re-elected to the slate of Officers include: Vice –President, Mr. Wayne Wray, President, First Global Bank; Secretary, Mrs. Pamela Smith, General Manager, MF&G Trust; and Mr. Philip Armstrong, Deputy Chief Executive Officer, Pan Caribbean Financial Services Ltd. continues as Treasurer of the Association.  

In accepting her election to the Association’s top leadership position, Ms. Israel gave credit to the previous administration and acknowledged the challenges that the current environment presents.  She, however, expressed confidence that she would receive strong support from the Heads of Banks to overcome the special challenges that this period would bring.  Ms. Israel reiterated that the JBA will continue to play a key role in ensuring the strength and continuing success of member banks, promoting a safe, vibrant and competitive banking sector that will enhance the economic well being of stakeholders. 

Immediate Past President Patrick Hylton, in his encouragement to the new President and the retuning Officers, quoted from Abigail Adams’ words to her son John Quincy, “These are the times in which a genius would wish to live…..habits of a vigorous mind are formed in contending with difficulties. Great necessities call out great virtues. When a mind is raised…..then those qualities which would otherwise lay dormant, wake into life and form the character of the hero and the statesman.”