EASTERN CARIBBEAN CENTRAL BANK (ECCB) Governor, Timothy Antoine, says the region must make urgent changes if its financial sector is to thrive in the modern, global economy.
Antoine was delivering a keynote address, entitled Imperatives For Financial Sector Development In The Caribbean at the 2017 Domestic Financial Institutions Conference, a one-day seminar hosted recently by the Central Bank of Barbados and the Financial Services Commission.
He identified raising leadership capacity as the first of three “urgent necessities” that would improve the fortunes of the region’s financial sector.
After first differentiating between management and leadership – “management is running the business while leadership is changing the business” – Antoine expanded on the notion of leadership, specifically as it relates to those who regulate the financial sector.
“Leadership means anticipating the needs of stakeholders and sensing emerging issues before they become overwhelming or before others with whom we disagree have taken a commanding position,” he said.
He contended that taking the lead in what many have called a “post-truth world” is even more critical. Using the example of a man who in December 2016 travelled from New York to Washington DC and opened fire in a pizzeria because he believed an internet conspiracy theory to show the potentially catastrophic consequences of misinformation, Antoine asked the audience to imagine the implications of inaccuracies being accepted as fact in a sector whose currency is confidence.
Antoine warned that the proliferation of fake news and the ease with which it can be spread demands three things from financial sectors in the region: that they anticipate and be quicker to address distortions and half-truths; that they ensure that their decisions are made based on facts; and that they be proactive with regard to communicating with the public.
He identified the frequent changes in regulations and the increasingly complicated demands related to compliance with know your customer and counter terrorism financing guidelines as matters where improved and regular communication is necessary. (PR)
