The Caribbean Development Bank (CDB) guards its stellar reputation jealously, but the institution says it will not abandon borrowing member countries in these perilous economic times just to protect that image.
That was the message from CDB president Dr Warren Smith yesterday during a regional media briefing at the bank’s Wildey, St Michael headquarters to discuss recent downgrades by international rating agencies – Moody’s Investment Services and Standard & Poor’s – to Aa1 and AA+ respectively.
Admitting that the loss of its prized, long-standing AAA rating had anguished him and hurt the CDB’s reputation, Smith said even before the downgrades, the bank was seeking to strengthen its risk management, which was seen as the chink in the institution’s armour.
He said the CDB was now engaging one of the world’s best consultants on risk management to address this area of worry, and the bank was going after reinstatement of its former top tier rating.
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