Attorney General and Minister of Home Affairs, Adriel Brathwaite, is putting a case for the region to have its own international bank to deal with the problems posed to regional economies by the withdrawal of correspondent banking relationships or restrictions on those services within the Caribbean, among other things.
Brathwaite, as he delivered the weekly Astor B. Watts Lunchtime Lecture on the topic ‘Protecting Our Financial Borders’ at the Democratic Labour Party’s headquarters on Friday afternoon, told those gathered that the region could also consider investing in an existing international bank and acquiring a majority shareholder position. He firmly believes any two of those options would ensure that Barbados and the other countries within the region are not dependent on foreign shareholders, “whose sole interest is profitability in their backyards”.
“Yes, I agree there are issues with operating in our region. We know our issues in terms of heavy losses in terms of sugar, bananas and tourism. We accept that, but let me repeat, I believe that this is a threat to us and we have to address it and from a regional perspective... We should form or acquire an international bank, so that when these things arise that some shareholder or some director from outside of Barbados, don’t make the de-cision to move the bank, sell their assets and disappear and then we are scrambling because our people have no banking resources,” he said.
Acknowledging that there are likely to be some persons in the region who would not support such a move, and are likely to cite the CLICO experience as an example of why it should not be pursued, Brathwaite is adamant that the Central Banks of countries within the region adhere to the best international practices and are up to the task.
“So I am not afraid of a regional bank being regulated by the regional Central Banks here and managed by us here in the region. Just look up the hill and you would see the Caribbean Development Bank has been here for God knows how long and I have not heard any issues in terms of quality control, or any other issues with respect to the Caribbean Development Bank. But you see we have this thing in the region, we believe to be good it has to be foreign… That’s why we like to hire foreign consultants; they would come in and say the same thing you have been saying for years,” he lamented. (JRT)