General Manager’ s Message
I am delighted to present to you the 2016 edition of Caribbean Account which celebrates the Caribbean Association of Banks’ 43rd AGM and Conference under the theme:“ Caribbean Banking: Fresh Tools, New Thinking.” I wish to extend sincere thanks to our valued advertisers and contributors, and a wholehearted welcome to the readers of this publication, as well as the delegates and sponsors at the 43rd AGM and Conference in the beautiful island of Curaçao.
During the period November 2015 to October 2016, the CAB Secretariat focused on achieving some of the key objectives set out in our Strategic Plan with a focus on: Forging strategic partnerships and alliances for effective advocacy; Achieving closer alignment with regulators and other associations; Expanding the membership base; Widening our scope of services through education and training; and Improving internal team capacity for greater effectiveness and efficiency.
We are happy to expand our membership in Curaçao and particularly pleased that the Bahamas is now an added voice. Indeed, this year, the CAB broke all records for new membership, warmly welcoming 12 new members! This is our highest level of new member acquisition in the last 10 years, and affords the CAB a stronger voice to represent the regional financial sector more effectively in these tumultuous times.
Six New General Members: Curaçao Development Bank Ltd.; SFT Bank N. V.; Development Finance Ltd.; National Commercial Bank Anguilla Ltd., Sagicor Finance Inc.; and Heritage Bank Ltd. Six New Service Members: CX Pay B. V.; Hallmark Trust Ltd.; AML Partners; Above Security; Curaçao Financial Group; and Deloitte Caribbean & Bermuda Advocacy— Correspondent Banking: In a busy year, the loss of correspondent banking relationships remained at the heart of the CAB’ s advocacy efforts. The following are highlights of activities undertaken by the CAB to advocate against the de-risking of banks and financial institutions in the Region:
• On Jan 19th 2016, CAB made a presentation at a roundtable discussion hosted by the Caribbean Policy Research Institute( CaPRI), Jamaica, convened to discuss trends in correspondent banking and to gain a better understanding of the emerging negative impact on economies of small nation states as well as to suggest measures to address the economic and social consequences which could arise from de-risking. A paper entitled“ The Correspondent Banking Problem” was subsequently issued by CaPRI in Feb 2016.
• In February 2016, the CAB participated in a meeting of CAR- ICOM’ s Committee of Ministers of Finance to deliberate on the impact of the withdrawal of correspondent banking services from Member States and to make recommendations to
Heads of Government at the Twenty-Seventh Inter-Sessional Meeting which was convened on 16-17 February 2016. Several of the recommendations submitted by the CAB formed part of the Conclusions which were agreed by CARICOM Heads.
• In March, 2016 the CAB made a presentation on de-risking at the Eastern Caribbean Currency Union’ s Banking Committee meeting.
• On April 16th 2016, against the background of an escalation of the de-risking issue, the CAB conducted a CEO Members Forum to discuss the issue and to identify possible solutions. A Correspondent Banking Committee was formed to advance the key recommendations coming out of the Forum.
• On 20th April, 2016, the CAB made a presentation on de-risking and its impact on the Caribbean at the Financial Action Task Force’ s( FATF) private sector consultative forum held in Vienna, Austria, hosted by the office of the United Nations Office of Drugs and Crime( UNODC). Issues related to terrorist financing and information sharing were also discussed. In attendance was a total of 107 representatives of 24 FATF member, associate member and observer delegations, and 51 private sector representatives including Secretariats of the Financial Stability Board( FSB) and the Committee on Payments and Market Infrastructures( CPMI).
• On 31st May-1st June, 2016 the CAB participated in a Stakeholders Dialogue on de-risking hosted by the World Bank and ACAMS’ in Washington, DC.
• On 4th- 6th October, 2016 the CAB participated in the Caribbean Central America Action’ s( CCAA) conference on“ Finance, FinTech & the Future of Banking in the Caribbean Basin” in Washington DC, and made a presentation on Capacity, Compliance and Risks in the regional financial sector.
• On October 4th, 2016 the Chair of the CAB’ s Correspondent Banking Committee made a presentation on De-risking at the IMF’ s High-Level Conference on Correspondent Banking Relationships: Policy Responses and Industry Solutions.
• On 28-29th October, 2016, the CAB participated in CAR- ICOM’ s Global Stakeholders’ Conference on Correspon-
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