BRIDGETOWN, Barbados – There is a need for more information sharing across the Caribbean region so that the relevant authorities can “act quickly, respond quickly, protect investment, protect policy and most of all protect jobs”.
This view was expressed on Wednesday, March 4 by Prime Minister David Thompson, during a press briefing at the end of a one-day regional leaders’ conference on finance and regulatory procedures at Hilton Barbados.
“There needs to be more contact between the regulators so that they can verify the accuracy of information, so that they can share information about the adequacy of statutory funds or assets shared by insurance companies, so that they can ensure compliance with the provisions of the legislation.” This he added was important, “so that they can assist in ensuring that there’s an arm’s length relationship between the trustees who are holding the assets in trust for the insurance company in the funds or, by whatever regulatory methodology is used,” he said.
PM David Thompson
Mr. Thompson suggested that regulators should meet on a weekly basis, particularly at this time, to keep abreast of developments within the region and to share information especially regarding CL Financial and the Stanford Group.
Governor of the Central Bank of Trinidad and Tobago, Ewart Williams, who expressed similar sentiments, said that the financial crisis had underscored the need for the region to work more closely, not only to be able to anticipate crises, but also, to respond in a coordinated way.
Prime Minister of St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Dr. Ralph Gonsalves, also revealed that another major decision taken at the meeting was the establishment of a fund “from which liquidity can be drawn in times of difficulty with any particular entity in any particular country”.
He added that it had been suggested that a sum of resources from the CARICOM Petroleum Facility could be used for this purpose.
Dr. Gonsalves also noted that the general consensus at the meeting was that a crisis was a “terrible thing to waste”, and therefore the region needed to work together “so that a lasting and enduring legacy would be a deepening of the process of regional integration”.
