The government delegation was led by Hubert A. Ingraham, Prime Minister, and comprised Brent Symonette, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs, Sen. Claire Hepburn, Attorney General and Minister of Legal Affairs, Tommy Turnquest, Minister of National Security and Immigration, Zhivargo Laing, Minister of State, Ministry of Finance, Desmond Bannister, Minister of State for Legal Affairs and Sen. Elma Campbell, Minister of State for Immigration.

Regulators Gov. Wendy Craigg, Philip Stubbs, Hillary Deveaux, Pauline Sherman, and Nathaniel Adderley also participated.

Chairman Craig Gomez said, ahead of the event, that:

“BFSB is pleased to host the Retreat in Abaco for the first time. We feel that the continuing high level of participation – 130+ for the 5th BFS Retreat – is a clear indication of the influence of the financial services sector.”

The format remained similar to previous Retreats, with a number of Plenary Presentations as well as Breakout Sessions.

The latter was kept to small groups to facilitate dialogue on the industry issues being covered in the plenaries.

Plenary Presentations were set to be delivered by international speakers Ben Arrindell, Ernst & Young, Barbados; Fernando Boyd, Morgan & Morgan, Panama; Dr. Malcolm Couch, Isle of Man Treasury; Michael Douglas, Aon Global Insurance Managers, US; Dr. Paolo Filippini, Banca del Gottardo, Switzerland; and Mark Sills, Fasken Martineau DuMoulin LLP, Canada. Local speakers included Central Bank Governor Wendy Craigg, Rowena Bethel, Ministry of Finance and John Delaney, Bahamas Trade Commission.

The BFSB stated that: "Ongoing nurturing of public/private sector collaboration is always a key objective of the Retreat. The broad level of participation by government, regulators and the private sector has assured that the events are successful."