limits, credit scoring, collateral, and similar tools. credit unions have an inherent advantage in this regard, because your institution is structured around the relationships of your members to each other, to the credit union, and, most often, to some other institution or location, be that a church, profession, workplace or town or village. your members are known to the union, and are subject to a powerful social sanction that serves as an incentive to service loans granted by the credit union. nobody wants to endure the humiliation of being known as a defaulter, and feeling that all and sundry are ostracising you and looking down on you as a deadbeat. as mohammed younis from bangladesh, the man who dreamed up microcredit realised, social sanction can be the most powerful incentive to pay what you owe. it follows that cooperative institutions such as credit unions will have a better track record than banks, so long as they are tolerably well run. credit unions typically are able to offer a better deal to their customers than banks can afford to do. they do not have all the overhead costs that a big bank has to pay, and any surpluses the union realises are added to members ’ bonuses and distributed. credit unions are not under pressure from shareholders to maximise their profits, as banks are. they are therefore able to accept deposits at higher rates than would be profitable for banks, and make loans at somewhat better rates than banks are able to do. therefore, as financial systems are modernised in many countries, credit unions come to play an increasing role in the provision of financial services to households. the growth of bis central bankers ’ speeches credit union membership is a phenomenon that may be observed not only in barbados but in the us, canada and many other countries. the establishment of our financial services commission in 2011 was an important milestone in the ongoing strengthening of credit unionism in barbados. the fsc is the new regulator of credit unions and all financial institutions other than banks, finance companies and trust companies. the fsc oversees credit unions to ensure that their operations are satisfactory, and that they are lending prudently. all credit unions report regularly to the fsc, which also carries out physical inspections from time to time. any credit union that is not operating at internationally acceptable standards is required by the fsc to remedy all deficiencies, as a condition of renewing its license. credit union members therefore have an assurance that licensed credit unions are well run, and that measures

the bank will be focusing in the coming months. on behalf of the organizing committee, i thank persons who so kindly participated in the survey. let me add, however, that while there is no one particular topic dealing with the cost - of - living, we hope that the overall programme will equip you to better manage this area. the bank hopes to partner with persons in the financial services and the education sectors to help with the delivery of the national financial education programme. we are therefore inviting commercial banks, the barbados stock exchange, credit unions and other financial entities to come on board to provide technical and other assistance. we have organized a comprehensive sponsorship package. if you are interested in partnering with us and you wish to obtain more details about the partnerships, please contact ms. sadie dixon at the bank. additionally, the committee with responsibility for developing these partnerships may be contacting you. i must add, that while we welcome the participation and involvement of partners we will not be promoting any company ’ s products and services. the national financial education programme is not about marketing products and services. educating the populace on matters related to finance and economics is a critical aspect of our mandate, it ’ s a mandate that we have fulfilled for years, and this programme is yet another initiative in our education campaign. however, as the nomenclature suggests, this programme will be on the national scale and we hope to make all barbadians financially literate. those of you who read the newspapers yesterday about the number of bounced cheques will agree that there is need for skills in budgeting. the result of such financial management and decisions can lead to a considerable improvement in financial decision - making. the length of the programme will depend on its success. the more successful it is, the shorter its duration can be. we trust that the general public will benefit from the programme. i thank you for listening.