P.R.-Based Banks Consolidate; Insurance Market Struggles: Oriental Bank, FirstBank Buyouts of Local Scotiabank, Santander Businesses Shore up Their Position; Regulator Submits Bill to Address Insurer Failures.

The article reports that the acquisitions by financial institutions Oriental Bank and FirstBank of the island operations of their overseas based counterparts, Scotiabank and Banco Santander, made local banking headlines in 2019. It mentions that the insurance industry continued to reel from the post-hurricane hard market and the liquidation of two local property insurers and a health insurance company, as the local regulator submitted legislation to avoid a repeat of the failures.