Tighter banking policies

The Eastern Caribbean Monetary Council is considering a proposed amalgamation of the banks in the sub-region in order to create more efficiency and stability within the financial system. There are more than three dozen banks listed across the OECS region where individual countries hold responsibility for licensing banks in their respective territories. But Governor of the Eastern Caribbean Central Bank (ECCB), Sir Dwight Venner is describing the situation as a “banking overload”. Sir Dwight said there exists a strong case for amalgamating banks across the Eastern Caribbean which has a population of just over half a million.  “Legally we have 40 banks in the OECS and that is to say that because each country licenses banks separately, the Bank of Nova Scotia for example which has seven branches in the Eastern Caribbean Currency Union is regarded as seven banks, so we end up with 26foreign banks and 14 local banks. “For a population of 600,000 based on all the arithmetic these are too many banks,” Sir Dwight said.

Courtesy: www.cananewsonline.com