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3RD CARIBBEAN CONFERENCE ON THE INTERNATIONAL FINANCIAL SERVICES SECTOR
THE CARIBBEAN ENGAGING THE WORLD IN FINANCIAL SERVICES
Kirk Taitt
President
Barbados Association of Compliance Professionals
Prior to undertaking responsibility for the risk and compliance function at an emerging financial
services company in Barbados in November 2010, Kirk spent 8 years with CIBC FirstCaribbean
International Bank Limited. As an Associate Director of Compliance for the Barbados operating
company, he was responsible for rolling out the bank’s compliance strategy locally and provided
support to compliance colleagues across the region, ensuring hundreds of staff were, on annual
basis, appropriately trained in money laundering prevention and other compliance related matters.
Kirk’s skills are complemented by a solid regulatory background through his employment with the
Central Bank of Barbados from 1985-2000. He is the architect of two local training courses in
regulatory compliance for the credit union industry, administered through the Barbados
Cooperative Credit Union League.
A Certified Compliance Professional with the Governance, Risk and Compliance Institute of
Australia, Kirk holds a BSc in Management and a Master of Philosophy degree in Governance and
Public Policy, both from the UWI Cave Hill Campus. His graduate thesis explored the threat posed
by money laundering and terrorist financing to Caribbean international financial centres and
analyzed whether regulation, on its own, could solve the problem.
Kirk is President and co-founder of the Barbados Association of Compliance Professionals.
Sona Varma
Senior, Country Economist, LCSPE, Latin America and the Caribbean
World Bank
Ms. Varma joined the World Bank soon after completing her PhD in Economics in 1993. She has
worked in various departments of the World Bank, including the South Asia Region, the Bank’s
credit risk Unit, and the Economic Policy and Debt Department where she worked extensively on
issues related to debt relief and debt sustainability in low income countries. Since June 2012, Ms.
Varma has been assigned to the Latin America and Caribbean Region of the World Bank, where
she works on the Caribbean. Her current assignment is Senior Country Economist for Jamaica.
Between 2006 and 2010, Sona was on leave from the World Bank and was based in India, where
she worked on financial inclusion and microfinance as a senior economic advisor for India’s largest
private sector bank.