Imagine the headlines if only Victoria Mutual had been an athlete…
If Victoria Mutual (VM) Group — the conglomerate which grew out of the 143-year-old Victoria Mutual Building Society (VMBS) — had been an athlete the news of its recent achievements might have made for bigger headlines, perhaps on the front pages.
The group has received high marks from The Banker, a publication of the United Kingdom-based financial Times which has just ranked VM as the second-highest performer overall among financial institutions in the region last year.
That alone would have been good enough to earn our national pride, as yet another local entity is flying the Jamaican flag high and showing off to the world the breadth and depth of talent we possess in the financial realm.
But, on the heels of that well-deserved accolade from the financial Times, VM Group was also named, for the third-consecutive year at that, the best financial advisory team in the Caribbean by another respected UK business publication, Capital finance International (Cfi.co).
In its case, The Banker ranked VM Group high among all other mutual organisations, outside of Sogebank in Haiti, which was rated as the overall top performer.
A break out of the assessments showed VM being second in the areas of profitability, growth, and operational efficiency; and third in soundness.
for its part, Cfi.co commended VM Group for being able to “remain cool under pressure” while being consistently dedicated to providing life-improving financial education and being an employer of choice.
We share VM President and CEO Courtney Campbell’s unbridled and understandable ecstasy: “This assessment and recognition by The Banker serves as great encouragement for the VM team. We have been working with purpose and commitment, laying the foundation for what we know will be even greater things to come. We are pleased with how far we have come and are excited about the future.
“We happily accept the commendations from these respected business experts and will use their positive assessments to fuel us as we press on to transform more lives,” he said in accepting the laurels on behalf of the group.
We know the achievements came with hard work and application, even in the midst of the unprecedented challenges unleashed by the novel coronavirus pandemic, which has delivered the cruellest blows to the financial sector, as with the rest of the economy.
Hearty congratulations to all the members of the VM Group’s network of financial and other services — VMBS; VM Wealth Management; VM Property Services; VM Money Transfer Services; Prime Asset Management, and their strategic partner British Caribbean Insurance Company.
The entities offer a suite of services ranging from savings and deposit, loan, pension fund managements, insurance among others, which together produced for the financial year 2020 a net surplus of $2.64 billion.
This performance, VM tells us, is among the best in the history of the financial services entity, noting that its business segments contributed positively to overall group performance, despite the impact of the pandemic.
Keep making Jamaica proud, VM.
Except for the views expressed in the column above, the articles published on this page do not necessarily represent the views of the Jamaica Observer.