Finance minister urges financial sector to beef up cybersecurity

Minister in the Ministry of Finance Ryan Straughn has issued a call to financial services industry regulators and institutions to strengthen their cybersecurity infrastructure as online phishing and fraudulent activity become more widespread.

He was speaking at a Barbados Deposit Insurance Corporation Bank (BDIC) intervention simulation on Monday at the Courtyard by Marriott in Hastings. The day-long workshop included representatives from the BDIC, the Financial Services Commission, the Central Bank and the US Treasury Department doing simulation exercises to better prepare financial institutions for system failures.  

Straughn said that while the financial sector has benefitted greatly from technology improvements in recent years, the growth of security breaches inside the business cannot be ignored, and as a result, institutions and regulators must make further efforts to tackle the problem.

He said: “We have seen both an evolution and a revolution within the financial sector, the emerging of technology is making it easier for fraud to be committed. Our security systems have to be beefed up because online phishing is one of those things that can undermine the integrity of any financial institution in Barbados.

“Collectively, our financial participants must work collaboratively to ensure that we mount a very strong, robust response, to cybersecurity in order to give our citizens the comfort that when we do our business, whether we do it at home or go out into the world as we travel and interface publicly, that we know we have the infrastructure in place, working collaboratively with regulators outside of Barbados, to protect the stability and integrity of our financial system.”

The minister emphasised that regulation alone cannot safeguard financial institutions from collapse; instead, such protection requires the entire participation of all stakeholders: “These issues today are front and centre of our policy considerations… we must be cognisant of the need not just from a legislative perspective, we also have to consider the IT infrastructure that we are setting up with respect to our financial institutions. Equally, the operation oversight; should there be a bank failure or failure of any kind, do we as regulators – Central Bank, FSC, Ministry of Finance, BDIC – do we have the immediate access to take the necessary action overnight to be able to prevent contagion from spreading.”

He added: “In a world where misinformation is prevalent, in the event that there needs to be triggered action by BDIC, communication is absolutely important. Collaboratively we must ensure that as regulators, that we have effective communication put into the space consistently, so that people know who we are, and trust who we are, so that the actions and decisions that they take are against a backdrop of accurate information.” 

(SB)