In a matter of months two key pieces of legislation governing financial services are expected to go before lawmakers for approval, Governor of the Central Bank of Barbados Cleviston Haynes has said.
Draft legislation for the establishment of a credit bureau was already prepared and a new law relating to the Central Bank’s relationship with Government is being drafted, he told reporters.
The credit bureau legislation is now being reviewed at the Chief Parliamentary Counsel, the official legal drafter, before being sent to Parliament.
“So we anticipate that in the next few months that legislation will come to Parliament and it will set up the broad framework as we indicated, for regulating and licensing credit bureaus,” said Haynes.
On the Central Bank’s legislation, Haynes said it was in the final stages of being prepared and he was hoping it would be ready by the end of March.
“Not all of the details have been knocked down, but the legislation will address issues pertaining to how we interact with Government generally. That is what we are trying to refine to make sure that the bank is not sort of held captive to an administration. That is where the autonomy will come,” he said.
Adding that the Central Bank was not operating in a vacuum, Haynes said it should be able to function in the interest of the society while providing occasional advice to Government.
“The legislation will address how we hire and dismiss our governors, how we provide financing to the Government in situations where there is a shortfall in their financing.
“So I think it will be, once completed, a piece of legislation which the average person will feel more comfortable with how the bank functions going forward,” He said.
The Central Bank Governor was providing reporters with several updates on Wednesday during a media conference to review the economy’s 2019 performance.
He reported that Government was in the process of reaching an agreement with outstanding local holders of Government bonds, similar to an agreement reached with external creditors.
Haynes said: “We are still in the process of finalizing the restructuring of a few bonds that we issued on the local market and it is anticipated that in the next couple of weeks that process will also be complete, largely along the terms of what we did with the international bonds.
“So we are hoping to have everything completed in the next few weeks such that we can get all of the debt restructuring behind us.”
Haynes said the Central Bank and the Financial Services Commission was gearing up to welcome at least two more companies to take part in the regulatory sandbox, which was introduced in late October 2018.
The idea behind the sandbox mechanism is to test innovation within a restricted space that protects both consumers and the financial system from risk, and determine if the service, product or business model should be regulated by existing legislation, new legislation or if it should be regulated at all.
Haynes also provided an update on payouts under the Resolution Life Assurance Company Limited (ResLife) settlement scheme, which began at the end of August last year.
He was not in a position to say how much was still to be disbursed or how many individuals were yet to receive payments. But he gave an assurance that once the Central Bank received the relevant information payments were made.
“One of the challenges which we recognize is that payments in some cases are quite small and some people are not recognizing sometimes that that they have been paid… and that is something we are looking at to see how we can address that particular situation,” he said.
marlonmadden@barbadostoday.bb
