Principal Banks of Haiti

[NALs]

I have known of SogeBank for many years and have seen pictures of their headquarters in Port-au-Prince (I think it’s a nice commercial highrise, was it designed by a Haitian architect?)

What other Haitian banks would you say are part of the main ones or at least the largest in Haiti?

I have seen data concerning the total assets of Sogebank at near US$1.1 billion but revenues around US$18 million. It appears this is outdated data, so actual figures could be higher at the moment. It’s hard to find quality data about this (well, anything that has to do with Haiti, I don’t understand this hermitism.) In either case, this makes it the largest bank in Haiti, no?

This is the website of Sogebank (https://www.sogebank.com/). It’s in French or Haitian Kreyol (probably the first one), both of which I don’t understand. It appears there is no way to convert it to English or Spanish right on the website, so I’m just clicking here and there and trying to make out what it says. Lol. I have to say that I’m impressed at the bottom it says “© 2024 Groupe Sogebank” which says to me this is an updated website and perhaps they put attention to detail. It’s common to find Dominican website with an outdated year.

Sogebank is a private bank owned by mostly or entirely Haitian investors? What about the other banks?

It seems a Dominican company either designed or did sone work in one of their branches. (https://www.lath.do/sogebank/?lang=en)

I’m assuming this is their headquarters in Port-au-Prince. I think they did a change to its facade, the original images that I saw of this buildings many years ago was not white/cream looking like this one, but it looks like the same building.

Sogebank (Groupe Sogebank), Banking & Financial Services, Haiti

Toujou bo Kote w ! SWIFT SOGEBANK: SOGHHTPP DELMAS BRANCH SOGHHTP1 022 PETION-VILLE BRANCH SOGHHTP1 023 Click a logo below to view a Groupe Sogebank subsidiary company...

flashhaiti.com

Considering the large presence of Haitians in the DR (it is said a large percentage of Haiti’s middle and upper class now lives in the DR and I guess most of their customers are in those 2 classes) and the ever increasing sending remittances to Haiti, have Haitian banks thought of expanding into the DR at least to service the Haitian population (regular banking and money transfers which comes in handy regarding remittances)?

 

[NALs]

Btw, you would think with the current issue affecting Port-au-Prince they would halt things like introducing new cards, but apparently just this February 2024 a new Visa debit card was released by Sogebank. This one appears to have international usage capability, which in a certain way it makes sense. I don’t know if this is a response to the current situation or coincidence.

La Sogebank lance la première carte de débit visa internationale en Haïti – Groupe Sogebank

www.sogebank.com

Cartes de débit internationale – Groupe Sogebank

www.sogebank.com

 

[NALs]

Technically, this isn’t about banking though it’s based from the 2016-2017 Annual Report of Sogebank. In the cover is an image of this painting. It was done by Haitian artist Vilaire Charlot and titled “Haïti de demain.” It won first place in that year’s Sogebank National Painting Competition.
It’s an idealized version of what should be Port-au-Prince. Quite frankly, a copy of that painting should be in large at a wall facing the entrance to where Haiti’s Congress meets, another where the president/prime minister office is located, another large copy in a public area of the airport and one more large copy outside in a public place or maybe creaye a small plaza with that copy the centerpiece. That image should be the goal to reach, to create the conditions for one day this idealized version of Port-au-Prince is no longer an idealization.

 

[NanSanPedro]

I wish I could remember which bank but I can't. In any case, I had given some money to a Haitian friend of mine for his business. He could only withdraw half of $500USD. He had to wait another week to use the rest.

 

[NALs]

According to yesterday’s Almuerzo de Negocios, according to Haiti’s Central Brank only about 11% of Haiti’s adult population is bancarized. That means that Haitians in general don’t have a bank account or even deal with banks. While one of the guys says he actually think that is a high percentage given everything that is known bout Haiti, this is actually a very low percentage.

If Haiti’s upper/upper middle class is about 5% of the country’s population, then it’s safe to assume that the bancarization percentage among the well-to-do is 100%. Among Haiti’s poor it probably is near 0%. As said in the program, the Haitian equivalent of Dominican things such as the Superate card or even simply getting paid via Haiti’s version of Banreservas (considering in the DR the government is the largest employer, a good percentage of Dominican employees are getting paid via Banreservas) doesn’t exist.

2:44 (in Spanish)

 

[NanSanPedro]

I know about 20 individuals in Haiti, none of them wealthy. 4 of them had bank accounts. It's now down to 3 as one of the banks would'nt let my friend withdraw $500 all at once.

 

[Lucas61]

I have a account in SogeBank. A woman there in OKAP was very helpful in helping me set it up. When I had trouble using the ATM, she even came outside and helped me out. Never had issues with this bank.

I'm afraid I'll be dead long before I get to use it again, for obvious reasons. One of these days, I'll check my balance online.