One academic is contending that Barbados and other regional jurisdictions need to have a seat at the table where international decisions are made about the lucrative global business and financial services sector.
Professor Don Marshall, University Director of the Sir Arthur Lewis Institute of Social and Economic Studies (SALISES), Cave Hill Campus, made the observation on Monday as he raised concern that regional financial centres were being unfairly labelled by international watchdog agencies.
Noting that some of his colleagues in law and economics continued to do research relating to the global business sector, Marshall said: “We are collectively, although independently, very puzzled by the sense in which Caribbean countries come in for certain kinds of disparagement and the standard does not apply across the board.”
He expressed concern that jurisdictions in the region continued to be labelled as non-compliant or in need of increased monitoring, while other jurisdictions, including those in the United States, London and elsewhere, continued to be left off the so-called blacklists and greylists.
“This is the reach of the coercive pressure that countries like ours face as they compete for market share in the global geography of international financial services provision,” Marshall said.
He was speaking to a room of students and compliance specialists during a roundtable discussion on the topic, Propelling Barbados’ International Business Sector and Financial Sector. The discussion was hosted by SALISES, Cave Hill Campus at the Walcott Warner Theatre at the Errol Barrow Centre for Creative Imagination.
“We need to have settled, once and for all, the inclusion of officials or representatives from the Caribbean that participate in international financial services provision so that we can be part of the methodology that determines the classificatory schemes that countries fall under. Whether they are blacklists or whitelists or greylists, we should be part of that criteria,” suggested Marshall.
“We should also be part of the Financial Action Task Force as a right, as an entity.”
The Financial Action Task Force (FATF) is a 39-member, inter-governmental global money laundering and terrorist financing watchdog that sets international standards aimed at preventing money laundering and terrorism financing.
Marshall argued that while central bank governors from around the world sit at the Bank of International Settlements (BIS) to have discussions, that was not the centre of influence when it came to surveillance and monitoring of the financial centres.
“So there is not much scope for inclusion there,” he contended.
The university professor further questioned the reasoning behind some financial watchdog agencies classifying Caribbean jurisdictions as non-compliant while other international agencies were reporting compliance.
In the case of Barbados, Marshall pointed to the annual Article IV Consultation issued by the International Monetary Fund (IMF), saying those reports “read quite well” in relation to the country’s compliance regarding anti-money laundering and countering the financing of terrorism (AML/CTF) measures.
“It is always a puzzle why other international regulatory bodies would sort of fashion the criteria in ways that [encourage] exclusion.
“Let me be clear, there is nothing wrong with being globally benchmarked in relation to regulatory standards. There is nothing wrong with that . . . [but] finance remains the only realm within which arbitrariness and exclusion pervades and prevails,” he said.
