CARICOM Will Send Delegates to Washington to Explore Options

Glen Ysaguirre

While Ysaguirre refrained from divulging specific outcomes from the meeting, respective heads of government will be briefed of a collective position that will be taken in the days ahead.  The loss of correspondent banking at the moment is deemed more urgent within the Caribbean than climate change since it has the potential for serious consequences to the region’s economies.  As such, other CARICOM member states have expressed that they too will be heading delegations to Washington to meet with U.S. regulators.

Glen Ysaguirre, Governor, Central Bank of Belize

“The discussions, as I said, were very productive and I think coming out of it there will be a series of recommendations that I won’t be able to go into details right now, as the chairman of the committee will have to go back and report to the heads of state and I think tomorrow they will be making some formal announcement as to what was discussed in that meeting.  But I could say that there is recognition that this issue needs to be publicized on the international level and so there was a very excellent recommendation for it to be taken to the UN as a more serious economic, because of the seriousness of the economic implications for the region.  And so that is one of the recommendations that have come forward and also I think the rest of the region have agreed that they would want to follow suit and do as Belize did and take this matter to Washington and address with the U.S regulators as that is the most important connection that we need any way to access the system.  The U.S. is the gateway for us.”