Belize City Mayor on Financial Institutions & Relief

Bernard Wagner

As a former banker, Mayor Bernard Wagner also spoke about the current state of affairs as it relates to persons who find themselves unable to meet their obligations at financial institutions, having lost their jobs due to the shuttering of businesses. Now, that he is on the other side of the table, the mayor calls on the banks to adapt to the new realities where unemployment will continue for some time.

Bernard Wagner, Belize City Mayor

“The economy, everything is connected and as we look forward post COVID-19, we will need the financial institutions to take up their load as well. The banks will have to begin to take risks. They will have to begin to inject money into small businesses because we have over twenty-five thousand people, I believe, unemployed right now in the city. There is no way any business entity will be able to hire twenty-five thousand people immediately. So the banks will have to begin to look at a new approach, a new model of driving young entrepreneurship, driving small businesses because these people will can’t find another job. They will have to find a job of their own; they will have to be their own bosses. And this is the type of new thinking that will drive this economy and get it back on track. The banks have to loosen up; they have to be able to take some risks.   I can’t tell the banks what to do; I am just suggesting. And maybe from the government’s vantage point and the central bank taking a lead role in that and easing up on restrictions, easing up on capital requirements—that probably would help the banks to feel more compelled to help.”