ewart s williams : an intensified focus on communications opening remarks by mr ewart s williams, governor of the central bank of trinidad and tobago, at the launch of the redesigned website, port of spain, 21 april 2005. * * * salutations : members of the board of directors management and staff of the bank specially invited guests members of the media ladies and gentlemen the central bank sincerely thank you for accepting our invitation to participate in the launch of our redesigned website. as you know, the central bank is responsible for the integrity and stability of the currency and of the financial system. to effectively promote these objectives, we need to build trust with our various stakeholders – the financial markets, the business community, the politicians, the media and the public at large. the most effective way of building this trust is through forthright, open, honest communication. over the past two years, we in the bank have sought to pay an intensified focus on our communications. we have done this in several ways – through our quarterly press conferences, through ongoing open contact with the media ; through speeches by senior bank officials ; and through periodic press releases. last year, in the context of our 40th anniversary celebrations, we introduced a new instrument in our communications arsenal, by way of our money museum. as you know, in addition to tracing the history of money and the institution, the museum is designed to give a summary view of how the bank works. in the context of our new communications strategy, we have reorganised and strengthened our corporate communications department which is now under the leadership of mrs. nicole crooks, who has the new title of senior manager, human resources and corporate communications. the bank is paying particular attention to building and sustaining relationships with external stakeholders, and to assist in this effort we have appointed a head of external communications, operating with mrs. crooks ’ department. our redesigned website is but further confirmation of our enhanced communications thrust. we intend to use our website to help us achieve several of our objectives. for instance, we plan to use the website : ● to explain what we do and why ; ● to launch a program of public education on financial matters ; ● to serve as a medium for conveying policy signals to the market and building support for monetary soundness ; and ● to inform about our community activities. we also plan to use the website to build on the bank ’ s long established reputation for providing accurate and timely information in keeping with the bank ’ s mandate to promote stability, growth

achieve global compliance standards if it is to avoid being ‘ de - risked ’. a major issue that has emerged in recent years is the threat of the loss of correspondent banking relationships, particularly for small developing countries. basically, it involves the growing tendency of some large banks in developed countries to end their ‘ correspondent ’ relationships with banks in smaller territories ; such relationships allow financial transactions to be processed in the developed countries ( mainly the united states, united kingdom and europe ). the consequences of such loss could be severe for the smaller territory, negatively affecting the flow of remittances and all payments for cross border goods and services and pushing transactions outside of the formal financial system. much discussion is currently underway on the problem and solutions. 3 in the case of trinidad and tobago, the incidence of withdrawal of correspondent banking services has so far been limited. however, there is an urgency for the country to fully adhere to tax compliance accords and international anti - money laundering / anti - terrorism financing most recently in october / november 2016 at a conference at the imf / world bank annual meetings in washington, d. c., a stakeholders conference in antigua and barbuda and a high level imf conference in trinidad and tobago. aspects of trinidad and tobago ’ s global economic interactions standards4 to forestall the possibility that the jurisdiction ( and by extension domestic financial institutions ) is characterized as lax in compliance, thereby hindering international financial relationships. 7. a third aspect of global interaction involves recognition of the importance of interest parity conditions in the determination of inward and outward capital flows. technically speaking, “ interest rate parity ” involves a relationship in which interest rate differential between two countries is equal to the differential between the forward exchange rate and the spot exchange rate. in plain english, this means that for trinidad and tobago the difference between local interest rates and foreign rates matters in terms of attracting capital or investment, and this has a bearing on exchange rates in the future. underlying this notion is the understanding that where there are no restrictions on the movement of capital across borders, then investors would place their funds where the returns are highest, taking into account their expectations of exchange rate movements and their perception of the riskiness of the investment climate. this sounds complicated but let me explain what this implies in practical terms. 8. monetary policy must be sensitive to external interest rates while consistent and credible macroeconomic policies help to guide expectations and risk perception. as is well known, interest rates across the globe are at all - time low