Governor of the Eastern Caribbean Central Bank (ECCB), Timothy Antoine, is of the opinion that there are too many banks in a small space such as the Eastern Caribbean Currency Union (ECCU).
He made known his position on the matter during an engagement with the media held at the ECCB Agency Office at the Financial Center on Wednesday.
“At the moment in the ECCU we have twelve national banks, but here is the issue we only have a population of 630, 000,” he stated. “When you add the indigenous banks with the foreign banks or international banks, frankly spoken there is too many banks in this small space and why do I say that, because the costs are high. The cost of the buildings, the cost of compliance, the cost of putting in technology, the cost of putting in security to deal with fraudsters and hackers and so on, the cost of dealing with anti-money laundering, the cost of maintaining corresponding bank relations, the cost of competing with foreign banks.”
Antoine stated that consolidation will provide a lot of benefits for the people of the region, “and we are strongly encouraging our indigenous banks to come together.”
He applauded the move that credit unions in Dominica have taken by merging.
“That’s a good step and frankly the banks need to do a similar type of thing,” he remarked. “That will strengthen them so that they could better respond to the challenges and to meet the needs of customers.”
The ECCB is a privately owned company (foreign owned) that CONTROLS our monetary policy.
Why is that?
He may have made a good point on certain matters which he outlined but is it feasible to decrease the number of banks.
), Dominica has Barclay’s Bank, Royal Bank and Scotia Bank. It’s banking was established long after the other banks. I would close it down.for good, if it is not yet closed. I do not see the necessity why it opened in D/ca. D/cans could do without that one.
Let us see. To my knowledge (from far away
There is the National Development Bank. There was the French Bank which is now amalgamated with the National Bank, I believe.
The Credit Union is an excellent financial institution which has always served the poorer people, if I may say and who may not be able to obtain a loan from the big banks. If I resided in D/ca, the Credit Union would be my preference for local banking.
There may be bank branches. Now with ATM machines, it makes it easier and faster for some type of banking.
Folks, please tell me how many more banks are there in D/ca?
Lady, lady. where have you been.You are totally out of touch and rambling, very sad. Barclays bank has long disappeared from the scene in Dominica. Better you say nothing if you don’t know what you are talking about. Check your facts first, there are at least a dozen off-shore banks in Dominica, all given a licence by government to operate and some don’t even have a physical address.
Mr. Antoine, that’s a very Bizarre statement, in light of the fact that more banks should engender competition and the consumer would benefit from lower rates, but even with the “too much banks”statement young people can’t afford a decent mortgage given the ridiculously high interest rates.
In my opinion what should be done is that the banks should consolidate in efforts for security, compliance, etc..and pass that saving on to the consumers..interest rates are too high..Banks can do better than that..especially the Local National Banks..
The people who are buying passports are opening bank accounts, all they need to do is show that they have a permanent address in the Caribbean which ever island they have bought the passport in! They don’t ever need to come to that island just show the address they live in then the passport holder can open a bank account! It is simple! Stupes. Money laundering big time. No problem.
what the hell does this comment have to do with the topic???!^^^
The Governor should be looking at the fees these banks are charging and demanding better service. Some banks have been taking from our savings accounts and giving us nothing back. Atleast some kind of insurance or something would make service sense. They are bold enough to say you are owing when the money is done
Expats have been closing accounts in banks and taking their money to the credit unions. Maybe some banks are about to close or cutback and the Governor is waging a preemptive war in the media. Just maybe…..
And their lending rates are just too damn high!
I have been thinking like the Governor. I think with our little total population we should “close” some of the islands down and move most people to one island for residence. Then we use the rest of the islands for entertainment, industry etc. as best applies.
The only problem with this thinking is that we serve both a home and a visiting populations. Most of the time, what goes on on these islands have nothing to do with the island. Put another way, can we afford not to have so many banks? Those that are not viable will die naturally and those that are not genuine will be closed. Is the Governor saying it is too expensive to regulate those banks under his care?
Sing, based on what’s going on as far as I can see, soon the island called Dominica will be inhabitable!!! Natural disasters is taking a toll on the island, plus the illegal rogues posing as government is destroying it economically that almost no one wants to live there!!!
We in the OECS already have one central bank, the ECCB, that takes care of monetary policy of several politically independent OECS states. That is enough. We should not restrict the number of commercial banks in the OECS space. The more the merrier because this is competition in free market economies which can only benefit the consumers.
Can’t you understand that because of high costs it negates the concept of more competition driving down benefit for customers.There is too much duplication of effort for necessary and high cost things which each bank must have.The governor is right.
Anyone remember the telephone rates to London, Africa e.g. when Cable & Wireless was the sole Telecom co.(Monopoly) – Started @ $10/Per Min. One big bank doesn’t leave room for creative service oriented thinking, rather : take what you get- services. Then here goes a number of jobs… The same people who are measuring growth is suggesting creative ways to cut jobs. There may be some benefit, but seems like your suggestion for change isn’t going to benefit the common struggling man. This may in turn benefit the short term clinics serving bread and fish instead teaching men to fish (feed themselves for a lifetime).
I disagree. The more competition there is, the better it is for consumers. Besides, if there really weren’t enough room for them all, then FirstCaribbean or one of the Canadian ones would dig out.
Mr. Foerster, I would not mind if they were proper retail banks but the majority of banks in Dominica today are off-shore banks with dubious antecedents. Sooner or later we will be blacklisted again.
The issue isn’t too many banks fool… that’s a good thing!
its that the banks are focusing on the same customer market.
Attract foreign investment… expand lending beyond local markets, provide real and easy services for potential diaspora customers to move their money into Caribbean banks and also use the credit and debits cards associated with those banks. Step your game up instead of contracting out of fear!
The Governor is right there. in Dominica alone we have so many off-shore banks now, some of them don’t even have an office but are virtual banks. Even in the PM. building it have banks that have no tellers an try and open a checking account there! What are they all doing here for 70,000 poor people? Maybe they are in the commercial laundering business to wash all that dirty linen that seems to be flying about these days I wonder?
off-shore banks are not regulated by the ECCB , nor are they licensed to compete with domestic banking.
That is exactly the problem!
One thing eh all u leaders we have in the OECS today really destroy those small states boy u sharing your views of what u think is best but u not talking about the advantages of having competition among banks, and as usual u all just shove policies down people throats like u did with the pennies, what u really need to do is lower inflation of the eastern caribbean dollar but that is to hard for you, it is not in the interest of the banks as your only motive is profit, u prefer to dictate how people should live, that is not a FREE MARKET.
how do you lower inflation of the Eastern Caribbean dollar? what’s the procedure? i’ll wait for your answer.
hmm he want the banks to consolidate, so when one fails all the others who consolidated follow suit hmm, diversification is good…