HEAD OF THE ISLAND’S SECOND LARGEST CREDIT UNION, City of Bridgetown Co-operative Credit Union (COB), is maintaining that the Financial Services Commission (FSC) wants it and other credit unions to remove millions of dollars deposited in financial institutions and shift them to banks.
Steve Belle, general manager of COB, told the WEEKEND NATION yesterday that he was sticking by his position that the FSC had instructed it to prepare a plan to remove the credit union’s deposits from non-bank financial institutions and put them in banks as the law strictly states and there were documents to support his contention.
Belle explained the COB had placed deposits in First Citizen Investment Services, Signia Financial, Capita Financial and Consolidated Finance, all of which were reputable non-bank financial institutions regulated by the Central Bank of Barbados that usually paid better returns on investments than commercial banks. He said it also had investments in Government bonds.
His comments contradicted a statement on Wednesday evening from the Barbados Co-operative Credit Union League which denied that the movement had been given any such directive by the FSC.
