If there is one thing about Minister of Energy and Business Mr. Kerrie Symmonds is that there is not much space between his mouth and his heart. He tends to shoot from the hip with little ambiguity about his position on issues.
And so, it was heartening but not surprising, some of the sentiments he expressed to attendees at the Luncheon Seminar hosted by BIBA, the Association for Global Business at the Savannah Hotel earlier this week.
The Senior Minister was candid, informative, and addressed several pressing issues facing the country’s global business sector, its corporate participants, and the raft of professionals who work in it. He also had some tough words for agencies that complement and support the role of the sector.
The seminar titled The Road Ahead for Global Business in Barbados was fitting, given the magnitude of challenges confronting the sector that has become a critical pillar and economic driver.
He outlined his own fears, articulating that he viewed financial derisking and the loss of correspondent banking relations as an existential threat to our livelihood because it could leave so many citizens without the ability to undertake even simple financial transactions.
Without correspondent banking, the thousands of transactions undertaken each year using our credit and debit cards as well as those done by visitors to the island, will be a near impossibility.
The Minister was not just raising an alarm; this is a fire that needs to be quelled before the house is destroyed.
Symmonds said bluntly: “I would go so far as to say that I am already sensing that it is a danger that can lead to social instability in this region.
“The money transfer operators rely also on correspondent banking relations and, therefore, if there are families located in England or Canada who wish to send money back here to relatives who are living in difficult circumstances financially and socially, their inability to do so, cuts those people off.”
But we wonder if the Minister might incur the ire of his boss in Cabinet by his suggestion that we have been too “timid” in our response to the unnecessary and often unfair road blocks by international standard-setting agencies such as the Organisation For Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) and the European Union.
His boss, Prime Minister Mia Mottley could argue that her decision to take the fight directly to lawmakers in the United States Congress during a special congressional hearing on the topic: “When Banks Leave: The Impacts of De-Risking on the Caribbean and Strategies for Ensuring Financial Access” was bold and far from timid.
Symmonds was also forthright and challenged not only the private sector officials who comprise the membership of BIBA, he also had a few strong words for government.
To the BIBA membership, he challenged them to essentially use the high-profile ties they have in some of the world’s largest corporate entities, to lobby for fairer treatment of financial services centres like Barbados.
He pleaded with them. “There is simply too much talent in the global business sector in Barbados for us not to recognise that we have reach and we have influence. From all the way in Bridgetown to the financial corridors of influence and power in the United States . . . in Canada and the United Kingdom. We have to be prepared in an organised manner to let our voices be heard on some of these existential threats.”
To his own administration and government departments, the Senior Minister conceded there is still much work to be done at the Corporate Affairs and Intellectual Property Office (CAIPO) despite the robust efforts to modernise its operations to encompass a regulatory role.
He challenged both public and private sectors to be “prepared to hold up the mirror and scrutinise ourselves”.
If Barbados is to achieve the lofty goals it has set, including being the global financial services hub of choice, there is a lot that needs to happen.
In this regard, the Minister did not shy away from citing countries like the British Virgin Islands (BVI), which has addressed the “humbug” of beneficial ownership information by establishing a beneficial ownership register. This satisfies agencies like the FATF, that BVI can demonstrate the ability to monitor and easily access the beneficial ownership information on all registered companies there.
We concur with the Minister Symmonds’ assessment, “If they can do it in the BVI. . . Barbados can get it right too. . . . The number of companies that are now on our register against the weight and capacity of the registrar to monitor, is a cause for concern.”
