Alicia Nicholls De-risking was one of the myriad of developmental issues raised by small states of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) at the 71st Regular General Assembly of the United Nations in New York over the past few days. The theme of the general debate of the 71st session was “The Sustainable Development Goals: a universal push […]
Caribbean States Raise De-risking Concerns
by caribbeantradelaw Alicia Nicholls De-risking was one of the myriad of developmental issues raised by small states of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) at the 71st Regular General Assembly of the United Nations in New York over the past few days. The theme of the general debate of the 71st session was “The Sustainable Development Goals:…
44 responses to “Caribbean States Raise De-risking Concerns”
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I realize Alicia is on the CARICOM gravy train, must justify taxpayer spending on trips to New York, etc., and is a friendly mouthpiece for the World Bank and certain regional politicians, but what concrete evidence can she provide of threats to Caribbean economic growth and welfare from the loss of some banking relationships with the US?
The Caribbean will always have access to at least two or three of the big Canadian banks and through them to US banks. We will always have access to the biggest British bank (Barclays) and its international financial network. In an age of Internet banking, new companies are created every year to handle international remittances. So where is the evidence of financial harm to the region? What are the real (hidden?) concerns here? -
“Laying the blame for de-risking on “heavy-handed” FATF regulations, Prime Minister of St. Vincent & Grenadines reiterated the potential of de-risking to disconnect Caribbean countries from global finance and “a shifting of potentially risky transactions to institutions that lack the regulatory wherewithal to handle them”.
The prime ministers need to put the blame fpr derisking where it belongs..on the crooks they enable to operate in their countries…money launderers etc…and on themselves as leaders for condoning and enabling those crimes…those actions caused the derisking in the first place.
Now they all are all up in NY crying a river…steupss.
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Why is it that we keep responding to agendas set by others?
Why do we need to depend on others in order to come up with our own sustainable development program for the region?
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Vincent…ah could not agree with you more. These little island leaders act like they never went to school and cannot create anything.
They seem to always need to be sucking on someone else’s teats…..or piggbacking on someone else’s creation…never their own.
That is what happens when you stop your own people from creating….to feed someone else’s beast.
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@Vincent
How do you propose Caribbean countries do transactions with Europe and N America if we are unable to secure relationships with banks in those countries?
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No one is stopping the Caribbean from creating it’s own banking system and domiciling it with branches, in other countries..
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David
We obviously need your lawyer friends to explain further exactly what the problem is. These high level descriptions of the problem don’t make sense. The Caribbean still has access to Canadian and British banks. The Royal bank of Canada and Scotiabank have a network in the USA. What exactly is the problem?
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@chad99999
Not aware that RBC and Scotiabank have a significant footprint in the US and Europe. The BU household is willing to be guided by you.
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The former First Caribbean now again CIBC also has a presence in Manhattan.
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RBC, Scotiabank and Barclays are all subject to FATF regulations. The question is whether they could ever find themselves in a circumstance where they would cut off their Caribbean business to preserve their much more valuable US business.
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Thanks Hants, these Canadian banks have to March to the beat of OSFI, we shall see.
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@PLT
I do not think it is an either /or situation.The local branches of the Canadian banks are part of the total RBC,BNS,CIBC,banking network and are subject to the same risk assessment process as the Canadian operations. With regard to the indigenous banks, I am reasonably sure that those banks that achieve the risk approved standards will not be de-risked. I think CARICOM is a bit premature with their protests. No country is prepared to expose /their finacial system to the type of contagion that led to the worlwide finacial meltdown of 2008/2009. -
David and PLT
I’m willing to bet my last dollar that federal banking regulators in the United States would never cut off the remittance/tourist economies of the Bahamas and the Caribbean from British, Canadian or American banks.
They haven’t done it to Panama or Colombia. They would be interfering with the travel habits of some of America’s richest families, and a sizeable portion of the American middle class. They would be guaranteeing a surge in the drug trade from places like Jamaica.
American foreign and economic policy has been remarkably generous to neighboring states like Mexico and the Central American republics, because there is the fear that if the story of Haiti is reproduced elsewhere, the United States would be flooded with recurring surges of desperate refugees, just like Europe is facing now from the Middle East.
Policymakers in Washington would never make trouble for Caribbean island economies, and if they even thought about it, imagine the backlash in the UN not just from the region but from allies in Europe and the Commonwealth
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The Big Four Canadian banks are an oligopoly that work VERY closely together. TD Bank and the Bank of Montreal (BMO) have extensive networks in the United States. For example, I used to live in Chicago. BMO owns Harris Bank of Chicago, which is one of the most important retail banks in Illinois.
As long as the Caribbean maintains its historic ties to Canadian and British banks, which go back nearly a hundred years, I cannot see a problem.
Alicia needs to explain the situation a lot better. -
BU will note that no major financial institution in Canada failed and had to be bailed out during the last financial crisis.n The Canadian banks are mostly risk averse. The y are very conservative.
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@chad99999
Let us hope Canadian banks are not forced to de-risk in a wholesale way by OSFI.
A U.S. regulator said on Wednesday it would provide banks with more clarity on how to comply with anti-money laundering rules without simply shutting down relationships in riskier parts of the world.
The U.S. Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, which regulates large banks, will offer guidance on how banks evaluate foreign banking risks and make decisions on whether to shut down accounts, agency head Thomas Curry said.
The new guidance will include a recommendation that executives consider the negative effect of cutting off an entire group of customers, or an entire region from banking.
"The global financial system cannot be paralyzed by risk," Curry said at a Las Vegas conference for anti-money laundering specialists.
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-banks-regulations-idUSKCN11Y2A2?il=0
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@Bernard
You are aware that the mortgage market in Canada received in handout during the recessionary period? Up to now the Canadian mortgage market is a manufactured marketplace that is a great source of profitability for the banks.
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All the major Canadian banks have close ties to US banks because of the volume of business done between the United States and Canada.
A typical Canadian corporation pays hundreds of millions of dollars to US suppliers and re eives hundreds of millions of dollars from US customers every year. The payments made by the Canadian corporation are in the form of electronic funds transfers, wire transfers and cheques processed through Canadian banks (RBC, Scotia, BMW AND TD) to US banks. We have access to these Canadian banks, so we have access to US banks. -
@ David @7:39 pm
No I was not aware of the hand outs by the Canadian Authorities. Thanks for the information. I hope it went to the middle and lower income mortgagors. -
But , David you are right. There is always a tendency for the bailouts to go to financial institutions that created the problems in the first place. And the taxpayers have to foot the bill. Another instance where wealth is transferred from the 90% poor to the 10% super rich.
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These C’bean states are nothing but collateral damage caught up in an International Chess Game of FInancial Warfare of the Zionist jewish bankers who are domiciled in the US and the EU against sovereign nations of Iran and Russia.
The ‘so-called aims’ of FATF is to combat money laundering, terrorists financing and the sale/purchase of weapons of mass destruction. Now which of these 3 applies to the C’bean region?
The US, EU and Israel are the biggest terrorist states in the world. They have been perpetrating terrorism for years, they’ve been laundering money for years and they are the manufacturers, traders, sellers and users of ALL weapons of mass destruction including FINANCIAL TERRORISM. Obviously, FATF does not apply to them. Yet the C’bean go to them as beggars. Have you no shame?
Open your eyes and realise that the House of Western Banking is burning and they’re desperately trying to keep it alive. So get ready to piss on its grave because it has been a system of USURY. They are running out of money and they’re looking to steal our money by ‘any means available’ and in this process small islands will suffer,
Obviously you are powerless to find an alternative on your own, hence you should look to the BRICS and CIPS.
And as far as climate change is concerned please be quiet. Whenever these western gangsters raise an issue you jump on their bandwagon which is yet another scam to steal your money with their bogus carbon/environmental tax.
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I would say that the G7, through FATF, put some small islands on their blacklist, and frightened the hell out of them. The only countries remaining as FATF targets are North Korea and Iran, but the small islanders are still so frightened they continue to squawk.
Makes no sense. Nearly 50 countries have been put on the FATF blacklist in the last 15 years, and the G7 could not successfully isolate all of them. -
I find it interesting that neither Jamaica nor Guyana has ever been put on the FATF blacklist, but St. Vincent, Dominica, St. Kitts, Antigua, Grenada and the Bahamas have. Does that make sense? What is the politics behind this list?
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off message:
Chinese doctors and nurses to work at the QEH.
According to Ambassador Wang Ke, a group of Chinese doctors and nurses will soon begin to work at the QEH. Her exact words on September 27 at the reception celebrating the 67th anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic of China were: “I hope that the first group of Chinese doctors and nurses will work at Queen Elizabeth Hospital very soon so as to offer medical services to local patients.”
http://www.nationnews.com/nationnews/news/87556/flying-fish-cou-cou-chinese-doctors-rescue
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What has not been discussed so far is how de-risking has the potential to decimate the indigenous banking sector.
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@ Exclaimer October 1, 2016 at 2:54 AM
Then you could as well close down the nursing and medical school(s) in Barbados. This will give the Bajan government an excellent opportunity to reduce its fiscal deficit by not having to finance any more of those soon-to-be-redundant “scammers” to use (Bush Tea’s categorization).
Why train nurses and doctors locally when they can be imported from China just like every thing else.
The likes of GP could as well forget about all that Western medical knowledge he has the habit of producing like screed on BU.
Would Bajans be seeing a new range of drugs in their pharmacies made of elephant tusks, tiger bones and dog stones packaged in China?
Maybe the time has come for Bajans to rid themselves of Yahweh who appears to have abandoned them in the time of their financial needs and to accept Shennong as their new Master from the East.
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The question the Nation needs to answer – as any professional news outfit should – is why are a boatload of Chinese medical personnel headed to Barbados, what is the reason.
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@ David (8.31 AM)
Why would the Nation need to answer that question for us? …the answer is OBVIOUS….If we are the kind of people who run and hide under our beds from tropical depressions not even yet named… for fear that ‘someone may get hurt’, does it not follow that we would need to defer to REAL people …who face horrific polluted conditions, unbelievable work hours and conditions, and depressingly low wages to attain high scholarship and achieve world-beating productivity? …all the while eating scraps that we would not feed to our pets…?
We CANNOT have it both ways.
Risk-averse, brass bowls always become beggars.
Risk taking, hardworking, productive and innovative sacrifice ALWAYS create choosers….Eventually, we will have to swallow the Chinese medicine …like all the other lazy, selfish, cowardly jokers in this world, who fail to grasp that it is by the sweat of a man’s brow that he may enjoy the good things of life.
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@ David October 1, 2016 at 8:31 AM
A most pertinent question to be raised is what would be the position taken by the Medical Council and BAMP on this rather serious issue.
How come Cuban-trained doctors find it rather difficult to practise medicine in Bim but Chinese doctors can just be admitted without the same rigorous assessment as the Cuban-trained doctors?
Whom would the poor patients or their family sue for any cases of gross malpractices due to inconsistencies in the application of standards?
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Chinese making a mess in Guyana at this moment.Swindlers,crooks,liars and they seem to have the PPP and APNU into their hip pockets.
Language is very important in the health care business.You cannot hear and take a 6 for a 9.The result might be..good nite nurse..
On the bright side I hope they bring some young,attractive doctors who might improve and enhance the local gene pool. -
A few weeks/month ago it was some offshore school wanting to get it hands on Bajans.
Now it looks as if the Chinese has set them eyes on us as well.
Has the word gotten out that everything is for sale in Barbados; business, the land, the people…If there is a shortage of doctors in Barbados, cannot the island turn to UWI to come up with a plan address this shortage (in the near future)?
What is the position of BAMP?
Counterfeit products and medicines are some of the things China is known for, do we want to travel this road?
God help us. -
Caribbean islands should be looking at these gift horses in the mouth. With China trying to get a foothold in the west, their donated computers, their laborers and health workers should be handled with care.
One day these jokers will bite off more than they can chew.
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The source of the info is flying fish and cou cou?
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David September 30, 2016 at 3:17 PM #
@Vincent
How do you propose Caribbean countries do transactions with Europe and N America if we are unable to secure relationships with banks in those countries?
………………………………………………………………………………………………………..This is the root of the problem…….why must we do transactions with them?
Think seriously before answering……as to what would happen……can our needs be satisfied in any other way……..
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millertheanunnaki October 1, 2016 at 8:19 AM #
Interesting statement on your part…..bearing in mind that they are deemed to have had the greatest knowledge on the human body and how to treat the ills of it when europe was still dealing with blood letting.
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No thinking required. We live in a global interconnected world of commerce.
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David October 1, 2016 at 1:48 PM #
Do we have to remain in it?
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@Vincent
You should research the challenges being faced by Belize and Antigua.
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David October 1, 2016 at 2:03 PM #
I also recall Guyana under Forbes and Cuba under Fidel…..unfortunately these experiments never reached a logical conclusion.
We better start learning how to paddle our own canoe.
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Barbados is holding one of the keys to a likely investment surge in Cuba.
http://www.nationnews.com/nationnews/news/87328/barbados-key-cuba-investment#sthash.sngnmcRd.dpuf
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Suggest wunna Bajans do NOT come to Toronto for Hospital treatment.
Nuff nuff Filipino nurses and Chinese and Indian doctors.
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To be clear. They were trained in Canada.
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My concern is not based on the race/ethnicity of the doctors but rather on the possible political strategy of China.
Barbadians may think that China and the US are foolish, but these countries are executing their own strategy and serving their own purposes. They may not mind the few scraps we gather whilst being we are being our smart selves.
The blogmaster invites you to join the discussion.