delisle worrell : an overview of the financial landscape in barbados speech by dr delisle worrell, governor of the central bank of barbados, at the domestic financial institutions conference, bridgetown, 11 november 2014. * * * barbados has a sound and sophisticated financial system which provides an adequate range and variety of financial services for businesses and households, but there are a few gaps still to be filled. the main impact of the global recession on our financial system has been to reduce profitability among commercial banks, and to arrest the growth of insurance business. the financial landscape is changing largely because of changes in the way that large companies manage their regional and international finance and payments arrangements. my remarks this morning will address these 3 issues. the main financial providers in barbados are the banks - by far the largest segment, insurance companies, credit unions and finance companies. between them, they provide adequately for the needs of households. banks provide mortgages, short term consumer credit and payments services. many people hold savings with commercial banks, even though savings bonds and credit union shares are more remunerative alternatives. banks also provide for the working capital needs of established businesses, and contribute to the funding of projects for larger firms. all banks operating in barbados are part of international banks headquartered in canada and trinidad. they therefore have strong backing. banks'profitability has declined, but loan write - offs are only a tiny percentage of their credit and have not contributed much to the fall in profitability. credit unions are the banks ’ competition. because of their mutual ownership, they are able to offer lower interest spreads than the banks, between what members earn on their shares, and the interest they pay on borrowings. credit unions currently offer most of the services banks offer, and there are no barriers in principle to prevent those credit unions which qualify from providing the remaining services in which they have expressed an interest. insurance and pension funds cover the remainder of the financial services most businesses and households need. the insurance industry contracted with the exit of clico, and there has been little recovery since then. insurance and pension funds look for investment that will yield a good return over the long run, and they are therefore a potential source of funding for capital formation. the weakness of this segment is the limits on the supply of long term finance. what makes matters worse is a preference for investment in marketable securities rather than equity participation in projects. in barbados there is a scarcity of marketable corporate instruments available for purchase and sale on

delisle worrell : what is a fair trade? text of the fair trading commission ’ s 10th annual lecture by dr delisle worrell, governor of the central bank of barbados, bridgetown, 14 march 2014. * * * tonight i will explore with you the ways in which economists, accountants, lawyers and business people try to arrive at a fair price of things, a price that is somehow the “ correct price ”. to illustrate how difficult that is, i begin with three controversial examples, two of which will be familiar to you. my first example is taken from a book of short stories by the brilliant jamaican satirist anthony winkler. the story i will quote from at some length is entitled “ the man who knew the price of all fish ”. here is how that story opens : baba was a black man with no past. he had nothing ahead of him ; he had nothing behind him. he had dropped out of oblivion one day, grew up in montego bay on the island of jamaica, growing into manhood with a tremendous lower jaw burgeoning above his windpipe, a jawbone as large as the top jaw of any mastiff, a jaw that jutted out under his face disjointed, un - proportioned, stiff, mysteriously heavy, capped with a lower level of green teeth. he was a black man with no past and no future, with a forehead rounded and indented like a goat ’ s with two thick and hirsute arms that dropped below his waist when he walked. his eyes, which people would squint to look into, were sunk deep inside his black face, sheltered by two fat lids that dropped thick as cream, squiggled down deep into the mystery blackness of his skin, and black themselves, so that except for their shine in the sunlight, they were hidden in the camouflage of his face. and, on top of this, he had no past. he had no future ; he had no wife ; he had no children ; he had nothing, except a small black hulled canoe, and some wire fishpots and mangrove - stained lines he used to catch fish with. every night he rowed out in his canoe and set his fishpots and threw down his lines, and every morning he rowed into giddy beach with a canoeful of dead fish and sold the dead fish to women as poor as himself, who would higgle him furiously, insult his fish, call