NBS holds 72nd AGM
– In spanking new head office cum operational building
YESTERDAY, the New Building Society held its 72nd Annual General Meeting at its spanking, dazzlingly pristine new headquarters at Lot 1, North Road and Avenue of the Republic in Georgetown. The lack of ostentation and simplicity of décor belied the comfortability afforded therein – through both the graciously pleasant environment and the friendly and courteous staff – a rarity in these modern times.
Another rarity is that the meeting began promptly as per schedule at 10:30 hrs, with the agenda items disposed of with absolute efficacy and efficiency, amazingly within an approximate half hour.
Agenda item one, which was the receipt of the financial statements and reports of the directors and auditors for the year ending at 31st December 2011 was quickly dispensed with before the election of the Directors, which was item two on the agenda.  Dr. NK Gopaul had earlier intimated his inability to continue to serve as Chairman but will remain as a member of the Board.  The other members of the Board, Mrs. Chandrawattie (Leila) Ramson, Director; Mr. Seepaul Narine, Director; Mr. Kenneth Joseph, Director; Mr. Ahmad Khan, Director/CEO/Secretary; Mr. Floyd McDonald, Vice-Chairman; and Mr. Moen McDoom, S.C., Director, were all returned unopposed.  The Board will convene subsequently to appoint a chairman for 2012.
Maurice Solomon and company were also returned unopposed as Auditors.

A Good corporate citizen
The sum of $8,000,000 was allocated for educational purposes and for giving back to the society; but this sum, asserted Dr. Gopaul, is not static, because even if it is exhausted monies continue to be disbursed to deserving causes upon credible recommendation, as well as an assessment by the Society.
Apart from NBS’ second division cricket competition in Berbice the Society will, for the first time, be fully sponsoring a 40-overs cricket competition, with all leading cricket clubs competing for the NBS trophy and other prizes.
NBS has always demonstrated good corporate citizenship by giving back to the communities to benefit Guyanese of all walks of life, with some of the contributions being the NBS Hall of Residence at UG, building at UG Berbice Campus, Queens College Restoration Fund, the Camp St. 2000 Project, the Guyana Red Cross and Guyana Relief Council to assist victims in the recent devastating floods, sinking of a well at the Shelter Belt, distribution of 500,000 exercise books to school children, rehabilitation of Linden Centre for Handicapped Children, six new vehicles to the Guyana Police Force to assist in fighting crime and donations to many other charitable institutions on an ongoing basis.

Chairman reports Financial Year 2011 as being an excellent one for NBS
According to Chairman, Dr. Nanda Gopaul, the results for the year under review show a record profit of $772 M being made, which is an increase of 34% over the previous year.  “This”, he said, “was achieved despite reducing our mortgage rates for lower, middle, and higher income mortgagors at the beginning of the year from 4.75% 6.95%, and 7.95% to 4.25%, 6.25%, and 7.45% respectively.”
NBS boasts a strong financial position where Assets have grown by 9% to $45.4 billion, while Reserves stood at $6.7 billion, representing 15% of Total Assets or 17% of Members’ Funds, which Dr. Gopaul said are ratios among the highest among the financial sector.
He continued, “We also disbursed mortgage advances for the year totaling $4.2 billion, another record, which was 43% higher than the previous year.”  The Society’s mortgage portfolio is at 52% of assets, or 61% of total savings”, which Dr. Gopaul posited has to be viewed as being sound in financial terms.
According to the Society’s CEO, the Society has recorded its highest profit of $772 M, a whopping 34% more than the previous year’s profit.

Humane relationships with the Society’s customers
The dream of every human being is a home to shelter their families from the ravages of the world; but most often dreams remain dreams, except when visionaries transform the dreams of the ordinary man into an extraordinary achievement.  And it is an extraordinary achievement for anyone without savings or collateral to build a house and provide themselves and their families with shelter from the elements and sanctuary from the world.
But the NBS is people-friendly, and Dr. Gopaul emphasized this in his report “With respect to those persons who are in arrears, they are generally mortgagors who genuinely fall on bad times, or those who are bad managers of their affairs, or those who have no intention of paying…For those who are facing financial difficulties, the Society does its best to assist, including making payment re-arrangements”.
CEO Mr. Ahmad Khan reiterates Dr. Gopaul’s sentiments thus: “The Society has continued with its core belief that a customer service of the highest quality is pivotal for its success as it greatly assists in its strategic direction.  We achieve this by direct interaction between our employees and customers, thereby gaining invaluable insight of our customers’ perceptions and needs.”
When one reads the history of the Society it immediately strikes the consciousness that the story of NBS replicates the story of many of its customers, who have made sacrifices to establish their homes, and struggled even more to improve their homes.
But the Society’s struggles to overcome the many challenges faced over the years of its existence, to today, where it stands like a monolith on the landscape of Guyana’s fiscal dynamics and social development paradigm, is a story that its poor and vulnerable customers know well.

NBS/GOG partnership a success story
The pride of the government is its housing programme, the phenomenal success of which is owed in no small measure to a partnership between the government and the New Building Society, because, while one partner was the creator and the driver of the home-ownership programme, the other was the essential financial partner; while both were facilitators in creating enabling synergies that made it possible for even the poorest of the poor in Guyana can be enabled to own their own homes.
Through the intervention of government, the Society increased the limit of mortgages while drastically reducing interest rates to as low as 3.5% for low income homeowners.
The government has also introduced mechanisms where processing of applications have been simplified to the extent where a potential homeowner only has to produce a letter from the Ministry of Housing to the effect that the borrower has paid for his/her land and the agreement of sale before processing of the loan commences, with the value of the land being considered as equity; whereas previously a transport or financial collateral was necessary before any consideration was given to a loan application.
According to Mr. Ahmad Khan, CEO/Director/Secretary of the Society, the bank does due diligence before processing of loans commence, with directors being pro-active and involved at major steps before making policy decisions.
He informed the Chonicle that the Society recently came under the purview of the Bank of Guyana under the Financial Institutions Act, which gives supervisory authority to the BoG, although the Central Bank has always audited the Society’s books to ensure compliance with the applicable laws.
Only a first-time home owner can relate to the feeling of exquisite joy when they have been granted the wherewithal to build their own home through the New Building Society.
Through the vision of the New Building Society and the Government of Guyana, dreams are being realized by Guyanese all over the country.
And the visionaries who conceptualized the establishment of the New Building Society, while most likely having been profit-motivated, yet created the facilitating mechanisms to concretize the dreams of home ownership of thousands of persons over the decades of its
existence.

A brief history of the New Building Society
The New Building Society Limited (NBS) was incorporated in 1940 via a bill known as Chapter 36:21 of the Laws of Guyana, In the process it took over the assets of its forerunner, the British Guiana Building Society, which consisted of thirty-nine  buildings valuing $77,960.00. At the first Board of Directors  meeting held on 27 th April 1940, Mr. Seaford was elected  Chairman, Mr. Jones as Vice-Chairman and Mr. John Durey as  Secretary of the Society.
Also, at that meeting many of the operational procedures, some  of which are still in place today,  were put in place. These included the appointment of Solicitors, Auditors, Bankers and the holding of monthly Board of Directors meetings. In the initial period after the establishment of NBS, growth was slow and profits were insubstantial, which influenced some Directors to make unselfish sacrifices by agreeing to work without fees for many years. Also, Solicitors were not compensated for their advice and attendance at meetings. Nevertheless, after twenty months of its existence NBS made satisfactory progress as its services became better known and public confidence grew. Total Assets of the Society moved from $153,000 at 1st May 1940 to $309,680 at 31st December 1944, then to $684,116 at 31st December 1949. At the end of World War 11 the situation further improved, enabling the Society to operate profitably.
In 1955, as a consequence of its outstanding progress, NBS was admitted as an associate member of the British Building Society Association, and the Directors were finally remunerated. By 1960 investment shares and deposits totalled $5,858,375; while 1500 families were given the opportunity to own their own homes. The role of NBS in helping to alleviate the housing crisis was very obvious in that it was estimated at that time that one in every fourteen families was living in a house either bought or renovated with a loan from the Society. At this time NBS became the leading organization in Guyana that lent for home renovation or purchase. During this period residents in areas such as Newtown, Bel Air Village, Agricola, Mc Doom, Lodge and Prashad Nagar benefited tremendously, especially those in the lower middle and the lower income brackets, since each loan was restricted to $10,000.
In June 1961, when citizens started to lose confidence in Guyana’s future, many investors demanded that their monies be refunded, but the Society was unable to meet all the withdrawal requests. Although the Hand-in-Hand Mutual Fire Insurance Company, the Demerara Mutual Life Insurance Company and the British Guiana and Trinidad Mutual Life & Fire Insurance Companies rendered assistance, NBS was forced to stop making loans and suspend payments in respect of mortgage applications already granted. These difficulties were exacerbated in December 1962 when the Society’s Chief Office was destroyed by fire. Fortunately, NBS was able to salvage a significant amount of its records.
By 1965, after twenty-five years of existence, NBS had provided housing for approximately twenty thousand persons. In 1969, although Total Assets grew, NBS was unable to attract new investors. This placed the Society’s ability to grant new mortgages in jeopardy, thus forcing it to introduce a new type of Savings Account called Save & Prosper, which eventually turned out to be very popular. Despite the foreign exchange and general crisis that gripped the country in the mid-seventies, NBS continued to grow.
In 1982 NBS demonstrated its commitment to national development when it agreed to sell some UK Stocks worth 395,414 pounds sterling to assist the government, which had urgently needed foreign exchange to purchase essential supplies for the country. In 1983 NBS achieved a significant milestone when its assets topped the $100 million mark.
In the late eighties and early nineties NBS witnessed a moderate increase in mortgage applications, primarily due to the massive devaluation of the Guyana dollar and accompanying skyrocketing of prices for building materials. NBS computerised its operations at the Georgetown Office in 1987. In 1999 the entire operation, including those in the various branches, were fully computerized, using a completely new and state-of-the-art system.
During the nineties NBS was successful in increasing the percentage of total assets invested in mortgages. In the late twentieth and early twenty-first century there was an upsurge in housing construction due to the establishment of several housing schemes by the Government and NBS was well positioned by astute management to service this market. During this period the growth in assets and savings was phenomenal.

BRANCHES
NBS has seven branches located in Georgetown , New Amsterdam , Rosignol, Rosehall, Corriverton, Mackenzie and thereafter Essequibo . The opening of these branches has been deliberate as it gives the Society the distinct advantage of being able to deliver its products and services all across Guyana.