ECCB
ANNUAL REPORT 2014/2015
5
EASTERN CARIBBEAN CENTRAL BANK
technical resources to provide equity and
business advice to new and existing firms in
the export sector.
4. The Eastern Caribbean Unit Trust (ECUT)
should be established to provide a wider range
of saving opportunities for the population as a
whole.
5. The insurance industry should be purposely
restructured to provide high quality and reliable
products and services to the currency union.
There must be a process of consolidation and
restructuring to create a consolidated fit-for-
purpose industry which serves the objective of
managing risk instead of being a risk itself.
6. Credit Unions, which are important
socioeconomic institutions and which are
growing in systemic importance with their
increasing size, must also go through a process
of consolidation and restructuring.
7. A Credit Bureau needs to be established as was
alluded to earlier.
8. The importance of development banks must be
carefully thought through. They also illustrate
the issue of lack of critical mass and the
limitations of national markets. The case for a
single development bank in the currency union
can be made as part of the new paradigm for
financial sector development.
9. The need for a Deposit Insurance Corporation
in the post-crisis period is clearly justified and
will be acted on.
The practical challenge would be to bring these
elements together in an environment which is still
oriented towards national institutions but operating
within a competitive international sphere in which
technology has trumped the established ways of doing
business and made the concept of “national” somewhat
impractical. In short, we are now in 2015, well into
what is now being described as the new normal.
The global crisis has led to a more stringent regulatory
regime for the financial sector worldwide. On the one
hand, all countries must make every effort to move
towards the adoption of the new rules and regulations.
On the other hand, they must, as a matter of urgency,
develop their domestic money and capital markets to
insulate them, to whatever degree is possible. They
must then, in addition to meeting the international
regulatory requirements, both make alliances with
global institutions and establish institutions of their
own in the major financial centers where they have
a presence through their diaspora. These would
not be full service institutions but fit-for-purpose
entities to provide correspondent relationships, gather
information, arrange investment projects and service
the diaspora.
The global crisis has led to amore stringent
regulatory regime for the financial sector
worldwide
The single space provides the wider environment
to accomplish some of these goals. It provides the
opportunity for establishing a professional and
rigorous regulatory framework to meet international
standards which is a sine qua non for participating
in the international financial system. It is also the
basis on which the commercial banking system can
