Before the break, we showed you what Prime Minister Briceno had to say about Ambassador Alexis Rosado's legal troubles, as well as the church's referendum push.
Well, the Prime Minister was a lot more forthcoming about his recent official trip to Barbados. He left the country to meet with US Officials in his capacity as the Pro Tem Chairman of CARICOM.
He and other CARICOM leaders held in-depth discussions with the US officials about the issue of de-risking. That's where banks in developed countries have cut ties with domestic banks in smaller nations, like those in the Caribbean and the small island developing states. Due to a legislative crackdown several years ago against money laundering, banks in the US have cut ties with banks from smaller nations. That happened on the premise that the risk of sanctions by their regulators is not worth the size of the business that they get from those smaller countries.
CARICOM leaders have been focused on hopefully reversing the damage to their local banking sectors. Last week, Prime Minister Briceno attended the Caribbean Financial Access Roundtable with the US Congressional Delegation to discuss this very same topic. Here's what he had to say when we asked about it this Weekend:
Hon. John Briceno - Prime Minister
"The issue of corresponding banking, the relationship that we've had with some of these banks for decades have been abruptly cut. Belize has lost 33% of the corresponding banking relationships that we had the different banks in the United States, even the Central Bank has lost their one. Presently our central bank has a banking relation with Crown Agents and Crown Agents is listed probably around four thousand and something in the banks around the world and the IMF and other IFI's have pointed to us why is it that you're banking with Crown Agents? and we are telling them we have no options, we wish we could do something else. What has been done now, Mia Mottley is the chair for financial services for the Caribbean and through her efforts and mine as the chairman, we manage to get representative Maxine Waters who is the chair for the house of representatives in the United States for financial services which include banking services. For the first time we had US representatives and one as powerful as Maxine Waters to come to us, to hear what are our issues, so several of us heads of government and myself as the pro-temp chairman of Caricom went and then spoke to her and several other banking officials were there, so instance a senior vice president for Wells Fargo who is a native of Trinidad and Tobago who appreciate what we are going through and listen to us and we describe what we are going through and in many instances they were not really aware. The problems is that congress in their efforts to be able to curb the flows for financing for drug traffickers, for money launderers, for arm dealers and terrorism passed some very strict laws on the American banks that they are charge millions and in some instances over a billion dollars they can be fined."
According to the Prime Minister, last week's meeting will hopefully yield positive results on behalf of the CARICOM block of countries. Here's how he explained why:
Hon. John Briceno - Prime Minister
"The former governor of the central bank pointed out to me that we had services with Bank of America and Bank of America was earning about 3-4 million dollars a year and when Bank of America look at the risks of providing us these services as opposed to the profits that they can make, they felt that it was a risk that they would not take. So it's called derisking. Thats how that word derisking has come about. So all of these banks have been cutting the services. They say the risk is way to big for the profits that's they are going to make."
"I pointed out to representative Maxine Waters that I believe that these banks have been doing business with us in the Caribbean for decades and I believe that they should not look only at the profits, but also I believe that they have a moral responsibility to provide these services for us. If they cut these financial services for us in the Caribbean, we're dead. How is it that Belizeans in the US send monies to their families here? How is it that we could pay for the imports that are doing? How is it that people that wants to buy from us, in the tourism industry, how can they pay us if they cannot transfer these monies. So it is a clear and present danger for our citizens in the Caribbean and also for Central America and some of the smaller African nations."
But, as viewers are aware, this crisis has persisted for years, without any major relief. The CARICOM nations have simply had to adapt to the loss of correspondent banking relationships by forming new relationships. Here's what the PM had to say when we pointed that out:
Hon. John Briceno - Prime Minister
"What we did, is at the end of the discussions one of the steps that we've taken is that Maxine Waters and we are very appreciative of her and 3 other representatives that came along with her - what they did, she says she is going to call a house committee meeting, the financial and banking services committee - she is going to call in these banks and she is going to invite us to come in, so that we can put our case to them in the house and listen to us and then based on that discussion, they are hoping that they can bend some of the legislations, change some of the regulations to have a certain carve-out for small countries like us in the Caribbean."
Daniel Ortiz
"Do you expect results though? because at the end of the day the bottom line is what these institutions are looking at and if they don't see the financial benefit, they may find reasons to say look we hear you, but sorry."
Hon. John Briceno - Prime Minister
"Thats a good observation and that's what they've been saying all along, but we hope that by sitting in congress along with them that probably you can tie the entire services that if you have a bank that you cannot cherry-pick, you have a bank to be able to provide services to everyone. It is as if you have a shop and I say I don't like you Daniel, so I'm not going to sell to you and its something life and death like bread, in Belize you can't do that, it's illegal and likewise we believe now and Maxine Waters has been making the point that we need to hold these banks responsible also, that they cannot cherry-pick that when you have a licensed to provide services, you need to provide it to everyone."
