UN General Assembly
2016

Jack Lew, the Treasury Secretary of the United States, talked in a recent television interview about the value of starting a bank account, the value of saving and the importance of the involvement of ordinary people in the economy of his country. It was a telling message. But throughout the Caribbean — where the tradition has been to provide a child at birth with a bank account as a gift at the christening — it has become very difficult for a child, not to mention an adult, to open a bank account, so much so that many argue that there is a disincentive to joining the financial system.