Press Releases
January - March 2008

• Tri-Star Tassa Group Takes Grand Prize
• Republic and Parvati Girls take a seat
• The Freedom Walk gets a Boost from Gold Sponsor Republic Bank
• Republic reflects on outstanding staff performance and loyalty

Port-of-Spain, Trinidad, April 04, 2008: Felicity-based band, Tri-Star Tassa Group, wowed the judges on Saturday March 29, to emerge winners of the 2008 Republic Bank Tassa Taal competition, dethroning five-time champions, S.S.L St. John’s United Tassa Group.

A spectular performance, coupled with colour, theatrics and pageantry, helped the group to garner the most points.

Tassa faithfuls from far and wide flocked to the Samar Entertainment Centre, Debe from as early as 12 noon to hear 15 bands engage each other in the first class tassa competition.

Crowd favourite, T&T Sweet Tassa Academy of Princess Town, copped the People’s Choice award to walk away with a cash prize, while Tropical Power Country Boys Tassa Group took home the second prize, in addition to copping both the Best Dress and Best Appearance titles for the evening.

Last year’s champions, S.S.L St. John’s Tassa Group, came in at third place to push Harlem Warriors Tassa Group of Caroni into fourth position. The bands were judged using a number of criteria ranging from clarity of the various hands and presentation to rhythms and harmony.

A community favourite, Tassa Taal featured participants adorned in vibrate and elaborate costumes, accompanied with huge stage props and a number of exciting fans dancing in front of the stage as their bands played.

Port of Spain, Trinidad, March 27, 2008:  In an attempt to continue its commitment to providing the youths of the nation with the necessary tools and resources to assist them in both their educational and personal development, Republic Bank has outfitted another school with a RightStart bench and notice board.

Earlier in March, students and teachers of the Parvati Girls’ Hindu College in Penal were all smiles, as they witnessed the presentation of their very own Right Start bench and notice board from Republic‘s representatives to the school’s principal.

Principal of the school, Phulmatie Bhimull said that the school, which has a compliment of 525 students, can use the benches for both extra-circular and academic purposes and their student council will use the notice boards for the dissemination of information of planned activities.

“We are very pleased for both the RightStart bench and notice board.  They are very timely and I thank Republic Bank for their contributions. We look forward to a long lasting relationship with Bank,” Bhimull said.

In September 2007, the Bank began its delivery of benches to schools in the Port-of-Spain, East and South districts. To date there are 35 benches in various Primary and Secondary schools across the nation. During the next school term, an estimated 15 more benches will be outfitted in schools.

As a socially responsible citizen, Republic Bank sees the need to assist students in their quest to develop a good savings culture, and as such, has designed the RightStart account to assist them in this process. The Bank also awards gift certificates for this account at various school prize-giving functions to help them start a healthy savings habit.

Port of Spain, Trinidad, February 21, 2008: The Trinidad Hilton was abuzz with excitement and anticipation as over 500 Republic Bank employees were honoured for service excellence at “Reflections” – a gala Staff Excellence recognition function on Saturday February 16.

Tribute was paid to staff with service ranging from 25 years to 40 plus years, those staff that outperformed in the Bank’s recently concluded Christmas Loan Campaign and to those who excelled areas of sales and services at the branches.

New to this year’s celebration of excellence was the Employee of the Year Award, which was won by Camaseta Drayton-Ali, a clerical officer at Princes Town Branch.

Pointe-a-Pierre Branch, led by Branch Sales Manager, Dave Mansingh, delivered a coup d’ force as it copped several titles on the day, including the much-coveted “Branch of the Year 2007.”

In the ceremonial feature address, Managing Director, David Dulal-Whiteway commended the top performers on their perseverance and achievements, encouraged all staff to continue aiming for excellence and challenged staff to raise the standard even higher.

“How else can you amaze and excel? How can you challenge yourselves to make last year pale in comparison to the next? How else can you grow and develop within to become a more dynamic, empowered individual, team and company?” Dulal-Whiteway said.

He added, “Too many companies fall into the trap of focusing on the vision of being the best; raking in the most dollars, that they forget that a vision can only be achieved through hard work and commitment by the dedicated, the resourceful and the driven.”

He underscored his pride in leading a team of accomplished, talented and committed members, citing staff’s positive attitude as one of the main reasons why Republic Bank continually moves closer to realising its vision to be the financial services provide of choice in the Caribbean.

Some of the other awards handed out at “Reflections” included the Top Sales Branches based on the Christmas Loan campaign with Trincity Mall coming in 1st Place; Pointe-a-Pierre, following in 2nd Place and Mayaro in 3rd Place.