THE CENTRAL BANK is worried that individuals and businesses could use underground methods to move money across jurisdictions unless a solution is found to the correspondent banking problems facing the region.
Governor Dr DeLisle Worrell, who was featured in the most recent IBFS Newsletter which focuses on the international financial services sector, said: “If a solution is not found, the countries and individuals who no longer have access to the services of international banks, either directly or through the correspondent relationship of local banks, will have to conduct their financial and foreign exchange transactions outside of the international system of licensed financial institutions.”
He warned that under these conditions, international transactions would be “much riskier” and “it would mean that no information on these transactions would be reported to the regulators”.
The governor stressed that a solution was needed that reduced the burden on banks to collect and report detailed information. (GE)
Please read the full story in today’s Daily Nation, or in the eNATION edition.
