The threats to the region’s banking sector via the phenomenon of de-risking could have “cataclysmic ramifications” for the Caribbean, and a “relentless” campaign must be waged against it, incoming chairman of CARICOM and prime minister of Belize, Dean Barrow, warned on Monday.
At the opening ceremony of the 27th Intersessional meeting of the conference of heads of government of CARICOM in Placencia, Belize, Barrow used much of his address to focus on the correspondent banking scenario and what it portended for the Community.
The matter is a key agenda item of the two-day summit, and a meeting of finance ministers was held earlier on Monday to craft a regional response.
The threat relates to the possible loss of access to the international financial markets by mainly the regional indigenous banks as several international banks, mainly in the US and Europe, have signalled to client banks in the region an unwillingness to continue carrying their business.
