Yesterday, the media had an opportunity to speak with Trade Ministry CEO Mike Singh in his role as co-chair of the Economic Development Council - which held a meeting to discuss improvements to the business climate.
Well, it also gave the press an opportunity to ask him about the de-risking that banks from the US and the European Union continue to do. In the process, they're terminating correspondent banking relations. Belize Bank, Belize Bank International and Atlantic International Bank have all been had their ties with Bank of America severed. So, the press asked Singh about the efforts that the Government is making to try to assist the principals of these banks. Here's what he had to say on the difficult issue:
Mike Singh, Ministry of Trade
"We spoke about the issue of the AML issues which is where the corresponding banking issue came up. I think the deputy governor of the central bank did a presentation explaining that this is not a phenomenon that is only affecting the Belize, it really is a regional phenomenon. Bank of America and many of the larger banks are undergoing what we call de-risking and that is through the requirements for reporting to the anti-money laundering authorities, globally, has forced them to start looking at the customers that they have and in reality the customers of their customers. So the issue that happens with these large banks is very simply that if a small country like Belize that has customers that they are unable to verify. The money that they are going to make from having a relationship with a small country and banks of a small country, they weigh the risk benefit, and there is not a whole lot of benefit and there is a greater risk. Because defiance by the authorities in the U.S and Europe are very high. So it's an issue that we just have to learn to live with. I was at a conference with the World Bank a few weeks ago and the topic came up. Every country in the Caribbean is facing this issue and the only way to deal with it is just to learn how to be compliant and to work lobbying at a very higher level for the authorities in the OECD countries to understand the impact. this is having smaller economies and I think we are doing quite a lot of that but until we get to that point, it's just something that we have to learn to live with."
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