Barbados Central Bank Governor Speaks On Exchange Control Liberalisation

by Amanda Banks, Tax-News.com, London

14 August 2002

Reporting on a recently held public-private sector consultation on economic issues, the Barbados Daily Nation revealed on Monday that Governor of the Central Bank, Dr Marion Williams, called for the programme of 'gradual liberalisation of exchange controls' to be continued.

Although the further liberalisation of exchange controls is principally necessary in order to facilitate the continued development of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM), the Central Bank Governor went on to explain that: 'the same legal, regulatory and administrative environment needs to be drastically modernised for the benefit of our own producers of financial services.'

'This applies to further liberalisation of exchange controls, introduction of e-banking and acceleration of e-commerce.'

Explaining the reasoning behind the Barbados government's adoption of gradual 'phased' liberalisation, Dr Williams admitted that: 'Our difficulty is that within the context of CARICOM we would wish to be able to remove such controls, and in fact we are committed to doing so. We are however constrained by the fact that some countries within CARICOM have floating rate regimes and liberalised systems and can therefore be a conduit for funds into third countries.'

Recommended