Scotiabank completes Dominican Republic, Peru acquisitions

Canada's Scotiabank has announced two new milestones in its push to optimize its Latin American footprint.

The bank has completed the purchase of a 97.4% stake in Dominican Republic's Banco Dominicano del Progreso and a 51% share in Peru's Banco Cencosud, following green lights from regulatory authorities.

The deals, announced last year, are part of a wider multiyear M&A and divestment plan.

For many years, Scotiabank has been growing outside Canada via an aggressive M&A strategy. A major focus has been the Pacific Alliance group of nations: Chile, Colombia, Mexico and Peru.

The deal closure news comes just days after the lender said all major transactions had been "done and announced."

On the Banco Dominicano del Progreso transaction, the Scotiabank said: "With the closing of this acquisition, Scotiabank doubles its customer base and strengthens its fourth-place position in terms of assets in full-service banking and its third-place ranking in the credit card segment in the Dominican Republic, with a 17% share of the market."

Meanwhile in Peru, Scotiabank is converting Banco Cencosud – a minnow in the local banking market – into a savings and loan cooperative.

Scotiabank and Banco Cencosud will jointly manage the credit card operations and offer other products and services to customers in partnership for 15 years. Scotiabank and Cencosud have similar agreements in Chile and Colombia. With the closing of this acquisition, Scotiabank has become Peru's second largest credit card issuer.

"Partnering with Cencosud has been a rewarding process in which we have begun to leverage the potential of the consumer finance business," said Miguel Uccelli, CEO of Scotiabank Peru. "With this acquisition we have completed one more phase in our strategy to strengthen our consumer financing and credit card business in Peru, which aligns with our global vision to increase scale in the countries of the Pacific Alliance," he added.

"Our customers will continue to enjoy the products they have with us, under the same conditions, but with greater support," said Carlos Morante, who is CEO of Banco Cencosud and will be in charge of the operation under the new name of CAJA CAT Perú. "We will continue operating separately, taking into account the special features of each business and we will continue to work with our current team of employees."

Morante said customers do not have to change their credit cards or other products. "Everything remains the same," he said.