Clarke: Time for a workers’ bank

TRADE?UNIONS?AND?CREDIT?UNIONS in Barbados need to come together and establisha workers’ bank.
This is the view of Dennis Clarke, general secretary of the island’s largest public sector trade union.
Speaking at the National Union of Public Workers’ annual general conference at its Dalkeith, St Michael headquarters, Clarke said such an institution was long overdue.
What made the situation all the more critical, he said, was the widespread discussion on the interest rates and bank fees that commercial banks had been charging customers.
“We need to come together as a working-class movement to influence in a serious way the banking community. Until such an institution is developed, we will continue to moan and groan while paying through our teeth,” he told those gathered for the special meeting.
Clarke said that a workers’ bank would not be anything new in the Caribbean, since Trinidad and Tobago had established a workers’ bank in the 1970s.
“We need to research this matter and put our self-interest aside and think about the larger picture – the empowerment of the working class. We need this as a social movement to influence all activities in this society,” he said. 
The suggestion that credit unions set up a bank has also been made by a number of politicians in recent times. Credit unions have recorded strong growth both in terms of numbers and assets over the past two decades.
Late last year the island’s largest credit union, the Barbados Public Workers’ Co-Operative Credit Union Limited, took over the operations of CMFC, a mortgage and finance company, from beleagured  CLICO Barbados Limited. 
The operation has since been rebranded and relaunched as CAPITA Financial Services with operations here and in St Lucia.
Barbados has six commercial banks: FirstCaribbean Bank International, RBC, RBTT, Scotiabank, BNB, and Butterfield.