IF you dare to venture out of the city and explore the fabulous West Side, particularly Vreed-en-Hoop, you will find that some of Guyana’s leading financial institutions have already beaten you to the punch, setting up shop in a quickly growing and increasingly commercialized community.

Commercial banks such as the Republic Bank and the Guyana Bank for Trade and Industry Limited, and insurance companies such as  Hand-in-Hand and the Demerara Mutual Fire and Life are located within walking distance of each other, and have become such fixtures that life without them is almost unimaginable.
A ten-minute drive in a boat which docks behind the Stabroek Market will place you at the Vreed-en-Hoop stelling. A short walk up the road before you get to the junction will lead you to Republic Bank, a bank which, according to its website, traces its origins back to 1836 as the British Guiana Bank. But the Vreed-en-Hoop branch, as helpfully illustrated by a plaque on its wall, was opened as the NBIC Vreed-en-Hoop branch on October 12, 2004 by Prime Minister Samuel Hinds.
A short distance ahead, Hand-in-Hand, which boasts of being the first Guyanese insurance company, (dating since 1865) has set up shop at Lot 4 New Road, Vreed-en-Hoop. Though it is not clear from their website when they opened their branch at Vreed-en-Hoop, they boast ten locations throughout Guyana, and  founded the Hand-in-Hand Group, which comprises the Hand-in-Hand Mutual Fire Insurance Company Limited; Hand-in-Hand Mutual Life Assurance Company Limited (a Life company, incorporated in 1966); GCIS Inc.- a proprietary composite (Property/Life) insurance company (acquired 1998); Hand-in-Hand Trust Corporation Inc. – the largest trust company in Guyana (acquired 2002); and the Hand-in-Hand Investments Inc. – a special subsidiary set up to handle the Group’s real estate and special investments portfolio.
If you turn left at the junction and head up as if to go to the West Bank, you will encounter the Guyana Bank for Trade and Industry (GBTI) next to the Vreed-en-Hoop/Plantain Walk village sign. The strategic importance of Vreed-en-Hoop as a focal point for residents of the West Bank and West Coast of Demerara and their need for banking services prompted GBTI to establish temporary operations out of rented premises in Plantain Walk, West Bank Demerara on 6th December 1999. Operations were shifted to a permanent building in May 2001.
Close by is the Guyana & Trinidad Mutual Group of Insurance Companies (GTM), which at a whopping cost of approximately $52 million, dedicated a spanking new Vreed-en-Hoop Branch Office on April  9, 2010 in Region Three, due to  unwavering support of residents since establishment of the first office on December 19, 1994.