After taking up winter residence on Grand Turk in the 1960s and seeing the need for a more bespoke alternative to the retail banking service on offer at the time, New York-based Norwegian businessman Nils Seim established Turks & Caicos Banking Company (TCBC) in 1974, opening for business in late 1980 some months after Peter Savory had established Chartered Trust following his employment with Coopers & Lybrand – where TCBC was already a valued client.

In the years since, first under the conservative stewardship of Anton Faessler in Grand Turk and subsequently, David Bee in Providenciales, and as one of only two private banks in the Territory catering to resident and overseas clients, TCBC has grown in size and sophistication to specialize in portfolio management, securities and precious metals trading, foreign exchange, international transfers, term deposits and in more recent times, commercial banking and mortgage-lending.

Parallel to this, from its genesis catering mainly to banks, fiduciary institutions, law firms and other professional intermediaries outside TCI, Chartered Trust had developed a reputation internationally as an efficient boutique provider of trust and corporate services to a growing number of resident individuals and businesses until 2019, when its corporate management component was transferred to another TCI-based licensee, leaving Chartered Trust to continue as a pure fiduciary, acting as trustees and protectors, as well as providing ongoing private client and escrow services.

As the world grappled with the challenges brought on by the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020, executive management of both businesses witnessed continuing – and increased – local demand for funding to finance the construction of private homes, luxury rental villas and business premises, and in different but complementary ways identified a commonality of interest in catering to this demand, resolving to create a reliable and viable platform to facilitate peer-to-peer lending in TCI.

And so the seeds of Lighthouse Capital were sown – coming to fruition in July 2021 following the grant of regulatory approval for the acquisition of a controlling stake in Chartered Trust by TCBC-affiliated interests and the commencement of the Company's expanded operations in August 2021.