The major business at today's House Meeting was the passage of three banking bills, namely the Belize Offshore Practitioners Association Bill, the Domestic Banks and Financial Institutions Bill, the International Banking Bill.
The Bills seek to bring greater oversight to the Banking sector - but the Leader Of The opposition worried that it may reach too far into banking affairs.
Here's what he had to say:..
Hon. Dean Barrow, Prime Minister
"What this bill does is as in contain in the long title; strengthen the regulatory remit and the regulatory jurisdiction of the Central Bank of Belize to ensure that the Central Bank is now in possession of the powers necessary to have it look properly after the domestic banking sector try to avoid any kind of institutional collapse anywhere."
Hon. Francis Fonseca, Leader of the opposition PUP
"I think it is important to share very briefly - very quickly what the international financial services had to say and what they said was essentially that this bill if pass in its present form would operate as a substantial dis-incentive to the development of the financial sector in Belize. The broad arbitrary and unchecked powers proposed to be conferred on the Central Bank of Belize by this bill are not comparable to the powers enjoyed in other regulatory systems and are not inline with international regulatory practices."
Hon. Dean Barrow, Prime Minister
"This was a presentation made by Chris Coye. This truth is that Mr. Coye is an employee of the Belize Bank or the holding company that owns the Belize Bank and the bank that has had the most difficulty with this draft bill has been the Belize Bank. My point is that there is nothing wrong with it. He is an employee and he is serving the interests of his employer."
"I just hope that the opposition is not serving the interest of that employer since I am conceding that the Leader of the Opposition is no doubt genuine with respect to some of the concerns he has enumerated. The question has to be asked, why on earth then did nobody from the opposition appear at the hearings of the House committee at which representations were considered?"
All those bills were passed by the House today and now go to the senate.
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