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IMF Executive Board Article IV Consultation with Barbados 2013: Government Urged to Continue Close Supervision of Banks and non-Bank Financial Institutions

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Directors commended the strides made by the authorities in improving financial sector regulatory and supervisory frameworks. While domestic banks appear resilient to shocks, Directors noted the risks posed by a negative sovereign-financial feedback loop as well as weakening asset quality. They stressed the importance of continued close supervision of both banks and non-bank financial institutions, and looked forward to implementation of the recommendations of the Financial Sector Assessment Program (FSAP) update.

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67 responses to “IMF Executive Board Article IV Consultation with Barbados 2013: Government Urged to Continue Close Supervision of Banks and non-Bank Financial Institutions”

  1. Enuff Avatar
    Enuff

    @ Frustrated

    Any coastal land is left for development?

  2. Due Diligence Avatar
    Due Diligence

    Enuff

    When government finally accepts that the Pure Beach Resort and Spa at Foul Bay is a fraud and they kick them out, that “expansive, pristine beachfront property just 10 minutes from an international airport” will be left for development.

  3. Frustrated Businessman Avatar
    Frustrated Businessman

    Enuff, you have no idea the scale of the problem. For any existing hotel to remodel a bar, change a pool, add a veranda or make any alteration to the property footprint it has to go through a 4-year (minimum) system of civil service and gov’t ineptitude. Never mind developments on new land, those are not cost-effective anyway. I’m talking about keeping old properties going. The reason Butch didn’t develop Paradise is due to said BS; the reason he bought an existing hotel is because the BS was less. Work out the interest cost on land left sitting for 4 years waiting on fools to do their job and tell me how it could be recovered with hotel development cost in Bim already 16 times higher than the international average.

    Unless you wrestle with gov’t idiots all day you will never have even a hint of an understanding of what fortitude it takes to get anything done in Barbados.

  4. Bush Tea Avatar
    Bush Tea

    Why exactly should there be a great rush to facilitate business persons? … when business in Barbados has meant scam after scam, destruction of prime beachfront property, and at best, importation of foreign made bling for mark-up and resale?

    Which businessmekn have come up with a proposal for something innovative and PRODUCTIVE in recent times (outside of Bizzy)?

    The DLP are clueless….but don’t let us fool ourselves that our business people or opposition party is any better.

    What we need is a meritocracy. Where issues are evaluated on MERIT by independent and competent assessors…..Unfortunately, not many persons like that approach because there is nothing in it for YARDFOWLS or “jokers with connections”.
    …we prefer to continue to argue about the total brass bowl system that we have inherited.

    One thing about which MIA is 100% correct…..the new Central Revenue Authority, if it is to be run by a board of persons appointed and dis-appointed by the Minister, is destined to be a complete farce.

    …ask Caswell what will happen when the minister decides that one of his ‘friends’ or ‘benefactors’ is to be exempted from scrutiny….
    Shiite man…..with her phone tapping equipment Mia would have Bushie audited every damn week….

  5. Frustrated Businessman Avatar
    Frustrated Businessman

    You’re right BT, BDS doesn’t need business people. You better practice sucking rocks for when the few business people left leave you for greener fields. The Trinis are already here to buy our business assets for 50 cents on the dollar, then you’ll see how business is really done.

  6. Oilman Avatar
    Oilman

    @ Bush Tea
    Talk yuh talk man! I like how you does sum everything up in a nut shell.

  7. Bush Tea Avatar
    Bush Tea

    That is exactly the point frustrated B.
    Barbados DOES need businessmen….not selfish frauds.
    The fact that our assets have been for sale to foreigners now for decades proves Bushie’s point that our businessmen are no better than our politicians….indeed, since they mostly bribe and control the politicians THEY may well be our real problem…

    You may be a special case – and thus your frustration, but generally what damn businessmen what!?!

  8. Pachamama Avatar
    Pachamama

    We have only reviewed these words of the international bailiffs, and have some initial comments. First, it appears to us that this document reaches into the operational framework of Sagicor as a monopolist and regional hegemon. Secondly, while the international landlords of Barbados are seeking to arrogate unto themselves the exclusive right to create an endless supply of money, they want to institute unprecedented measures to interfere in the Barbados economy with credit contractionary mandates. Thirdly, they seem intent on interfering with the operations of the indigenous credit union movement thereby limiting traditional practice. This has to be resisted. Fourthly, the imperialist World Bank/IMF
    seem to be signaling to the international banking sector (offshore) that the run on the foreign exchange position of Barbados is to be continue until further notice. Fifthly, they are asking Barbados to do the impossible, within the short term, while holding out a faint hope that a nominal recovery could be expected by 2015. This is nonsense after nearly a decade of marginal or reclining growth. But is this measure of any particular future value.

    Having just arrived from the dwellings of our Dogon ancestors on the dog star it becomes impossible to believe that these imperialist forces feel confident enough to ask a country to pay such a price for the problems fueled by the unceasing credit expansionary policies of the FED and other leading central banks over more than a decade. Credit expansion that found its way into the financial system of Barbados through the very offshore banks they are now willing to give a pass to. And yes, the fecklessness of the local elites were too busy disgorging themselves of products of cheap credit to properly measure the social and economic death they were imposing of the people of Barbados. Even the people themselves are no less innocent. All kinds of conspicuous consumption was the order of the day. Now that empire is seeking to protect itself from its own monumental economic folly, Bajans and the rest of the ‘developing’ world are to have hell to pay.

  9. Bajan in NY Avatar
    Bajan in NY

    @ David (BU)..Barbados Today reported that Ryan Straughan is not optimistic about the government meeting its targets, and he believes it should approach the IMF and enter a program immediately.

  10. David Avatar
    David

  11. Gutterperc Avatar
    Gutterperc

    David

    Report on the Cabinet meeting?

  12. David Avatar
    David

    Economist: Time to go to IMF

    <

    p>Added by Marlon Madden on February 13, 2014.
    Saved under Local News

    <

    p>Economist Ryan Straughn

    <

    p>Economist Ryan Straughn

    <

    p>An economist is advising the Barbados Government to negotiate an International Monetary Fund (IMF) programme sooner rather than later because it has no chance of meeting its targets in time.

    <

    p>The Freundel Stuart administration is hoping to slash about $35 million from its budget at the end of this financial year which ends March 31, and to achieve a further $143 million in the next fiscal year.

    <

    p>But immediate past president of the Barbados Economic Society Ryan Straughn told Barbados TODAY the Government had “dilly-dallied” too much with the measures for the past six months or so and it was now too late to rescue the economy through the planned fiscal strategy.

    <

    p>“We still have a current account deficit of nearly $500 million on the fiscal side, at the end of December,” said Straughn.

    <

    p>“The truth is that we might as well just go to the IMF and start the negotiations because the process takes a little time to conclude. So we are better off now . . . Because the one thing we cannot afford to do again is borrow another set of money because the reserves are running out. We need to restore some confidence in the market and the government is, quite frankly, unable to do so. It needs some help.”

    <

    p>Straughn said it would cost Barbados more if the country ends up turning to the IMF when it is “down and out”.

    <

    p>“We are almost down and out already but it will simply cost more. The noose around our neck right now is the current account deficit on the fiscal account as well as and the fact that the Central Bank is a willing participant in allowing the Government to continue to spend by printing money,” added the economist.

    <

    p>“We absolutely need to go to the IMF and we should have done so a long time ago but clearly Central Bank and the fiscal authorities seem to convince themselves that they don’t need any help when clearly they do. And at this point the International Monetary Fund is the only institution that is capable of remedying this situation given the enormity. This is not a normal fiscal situation that Barbados has found itself in. To bring ourselves out of this we really do need to get some external intervention to bring some order to the public finances,” insisted Straughn.

    <

    p>Saying that the country lost about $100 million in the first month of this year, Straughn forecasted that by the end of March “we will be right back at square one where we would have been had we not borrowed” the $300 million in December.

    <

    p>He said Government therefore had no time to implement its measures to achieve the goals, adding that some “heavy lifting” would be required next financial year.

  13. St George's Dragon Avatar
    St George’s Dragon

    It is interesting to reflect that a couple of years ago, almost without exception, everyone said we had to keep the IMF out of the country as they would ruin the economy with their policies. Now, we point to the IMF’s report from two years ago and say that if only we had done those things at that time the economy would be ok now. If there is one thing I hope we take away from this tragedy it is that sometimes we should listen to experts from outside, however much it upsets us.
    The IMF is not an “international bailiff” and “imperialist force”. It offers advice, and if we want to ignore it, there is nothing they can do about it. Failure to accept the advice, based on the experience of the last few years, is likely to mean the economy ends up as a basket-case. Our choice, though.
    The mess that is the Barbados economy really isn’t the fault of “international landlords”. It may be the fault of “feckless local elites”, if by that you mean the current crop of politicians in power.

  14. Due Diligence Avatar
    Due Diligence

    St George’s Dragon

    See mine of February 13, 2014 at 1:50 PM

    Many of the main recommendations in the 2011 Article IV report were not addressed – because of general elections

    The 2012 Article IV consultation was deferred because of general elections until end of 2013.

    Not only does Government not listen to experts from outside; they do not even want to here from them.

  15. Due Diligence Avatar
    Due Diligence

    OOPS

    …..they do not even want to hear from them

  16. Enuff Avatar
    Enuff

    @ Bushie
    I agree with you re frustrated businessman.

    On another note, looka the cawmere mafia all over BU: Straughn, Graham and Warrick…lol.

  17. balance Avatar
    balance

    “are-we-there-yet? | February 12, 2014 at 7:19 PM |

    I wonder what prompted these recommendations from the IMF?

    Include in the CBB Act a provision stipulating conditions under which the Governor can be removed. Revise provisions that allow Ministry of Finance (MoF) to overrule CBB’s corrective measures”

    Me too; but from a different angle considering that Central Bank governors have been fired unceremoniously before and there was one who unashamedly proclaimed that ‘he was creature of the Minister of finance.’

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