The Financial Services Commission (FSC) will be strengthening its regulatory oversight to ensure consumers are protected and risks to Barbados’ financial sector are managed.
FSC chairman Oliver Jordan outlined this goal today during his keynote speech at the second annual Barbados Risk and Insurance Management Conference hosted by BIBA The Association For Global Business.
Speaking at Hilton Barbados during the hybrid event, which had participants online, Jordan recalled past events, including the collapse of CLICO in 2009, to emphasise the importance of protecting consumers and the financial sector.
“Consumer protection and managing systemic risk has been and will remain the foundation of our regulatory framework,” he told the international audience.
Jordan said the FSC was supportive of the financial technology industry and will establish a Fintech Advisory Committee “to help improve the industry’s understanding of the parts of the regulatory landscape which are relevant to them and [to] help regulators build their knowledge of this emerging industry”.
The chairman said the FSC would also be issuing corporate governance and fit and proper guidelines in the coming year, and establishing stakeholder advisory committees to serve as consultative bodies to its board of commissioners and management.
It was also “committed to working collaboratively with the industry to ensure that Barbados remains an attractive jurisdiction with a nimble and effective regulatory environment”.
Some participants at the Barbados Risk and Insurance Management Conference. (Picture by Shanice King)
BIBA president Derrick Cummins told the opening session of the conference that the captive insurance market, where companies insured their own risks, continued to be a strong performer for Barbados.
“As the hard insurance market shows no signs of softening yet, institutional clients are increasingly looking for more control, affordability and flexibility. This is where the captive insurance industry, and particularly Barbados as a domicile of choice among the top ten captive domiciles, have an opportunity to shine and indeed does shine,” he said.
“While traditional captive insurance domiciles which neighbour us actually lost some ground in 2021, we are pleased that Barbados showed strong growth over the year, doubling the amount of new captives formed last year over 2020.
Despite some closures during the year, at the end of 2021 Barbados had a total of 308 captives as opposed to the 279 at the end of 2020,” Cummins added. (SC)