THERE is increasing consternation in local banking circles over protracted negotiations involving NCB Financial Group, its former president and CEO Patrick Hylton and his deputy Dennis Cohen, over the settlement in relation to their separation from the company.

Hylton and Cohen were separated from the company in August after initially being sent on three weeks’ vacation leave following a dispute about shares which were paid as part of compensation for the men, relating to hitting performance targets.

“These are two well-respected men in the local banking community, and the NCB Financial Group, with Michael Lee-Chin as its chairman, is like the gold standard in the financial community so certainly they could have ironed out an agreement already,” said a Business Observer source in the banking sector on Tuesday.

“It seems strange that 10 weeks have now passed since the company announced their separation, while providing for a three-week period to negotiate their separation package, and that is not yet done,” added the source.

At the heart of the negotiations is the size of the separation package for the two men who served the financial conglomerate for the last two decades, including what value the company should compensate the men for in relation to shares they were asked to surrender in July 2021.

Both men were asked to surrender 95.1 million shares valued at $13.8 billion at the time with the understanding that, over time, they would recoup that value.

Some were recouped in compensation for both men to the tune of $3.6 billion in the last financial year.

Hylton and Cohen were reportedly asked to consider amendments to their compensation, and both made proposals in that regard but to date the parties have not found common ground.

According to the Business Observer source, a former senior banker has been brought in by NCB Financial Group in an effort to mediate the dispute — but so far those efforts have failed.

He has reportedly been working with a team of local and international experts who have been combing through documents going back several years to see if they can find a basis for a settlement.

“It is clear that Hylton and Cohen want to settle but they want a fair deal, and there is no doubt that their stellar performance led the group to record spectacular performances over the last two decades,” said the source who pointed out that Hylton joined the company in 2003 after it was rocked by the worst banking crisis in Jamaica’s history, and was appointed the CEO just over a year after he started there.

Hylton was instrumental in the sale of the company from the Government to Lee-Chin when he was head of the Financial Sector Adjustment Company (Finsac). Cohen joined the company in his capacity as chief financial officer a year later.

The company continued its stellar performance for several years and last year reported record profit of $39.9 billion. The company’s financial year ends on September 30. So far, for the nine months up to the end of June, NCB Financial Group reported profits of $13.7 billion, down almost half the $26 billion in net profit the company recorded for the same period of the prior year.

“This saga has played out long enough and it is time that it is settled so that every party can walk away feeling satisfied, without any notion that Hylton or Cohen had been shafted,” declared the source.

Some two weeks ago Lee-Chin told the Business Observer that: “We are in the middle of negotiations still. We still have not yet completed it but I am optimistic that we will come to an agreement that is mutually acceptable to them and to the institution.”

He would not be drawn on what an “acceptable” separation package will look like for the institution or when negotiations could be completed but instead reiterated, “We are negotiating,” when asked for more clarity.

At that time Lee-Chin said he hoped the negotiations would be wrapped up soon, and added that it depends on the “other parties” — in obvious reference to Hylton and Cohen.