DFC boss defends lack of due diligence…

Intimately involved in the securitization process with the Social Security Board was the Development Finance Corporation. Today, its Chief Executive Officer, Troy Gabb, appeared to answer questions from the panel about the loans that the institution had put forward to be bundled with various SSB loans for sale abroad. As was pointed out to him by Senator Dickie Bradley, despite being notified well in advance of these proceedings, Gabb walked into the National Assembly without any documentation…so when asked for specifics, could not respond adequately. Gabb was able to admit to the Senators that the largest of the non-performing loans was to the Novelo’s Group with a balance of thirty-five million Belize dollars. Gabb was unable to name the second largest loan in default claiming only to recollect a loan for the construction of the Royal Palm Villas in San Pedro for five million dollars. Senator Bradley persisted in his questioning.

Dickie Bradley
“It’s just a handful of persons who would have borrowed large sums of money, for which you hold mortgages, but those mortgages are not working, they are not able to work out, and they can’t be sought. Is that your understanding?”

Troy Gabb, CEO, DFC
“The non-performing rate for the DFC stands at approximately thirty-five percent. The make up of that thirty-five percent is across the wide cross section of a portfolio and yes there are some big ones in there as well as some small ones. So that’s the basic makeup of the non-performing component.”

Dickie Bradley
“Of the thirty-five percent non-performing would you say that eighty percent of that was only a handful of large mortgage holders who are defaulted?”

Troy Gabb
“I won’t be able to say offhand.”