pre - requisites to such regional plan are ( i ) agreement on what constitutes a systemic threat to the regional financial system ; ( ii ) the existence of information sharing protocols among regional jurisdictions ; ( iii ) agreement on the strategies to be considered in the resolution process and on the guiding principles for cost - sharing in the event that public intervention is deemed necessary. a crisis management plan for our region is likely to face several challenges, among which are differences in legislation or supervisory approaches across the region ; competing national priorities or differences in resource availability among the regional governments. the implementation of a regional crisis management plan requires a high level regional council with the authority to make binding decisions as to the use of resources. this could be another challenge in our current circumstances. i would like to make a few comments on one of the critical components of the idb - financed project – the preparation of comparable regional financial stability reports ( fsr ). we need to remember that these reports are designed to serve as early warning signals by pointing out to policy makers the key risks and vulnerabilities faced by policy makers. most financial stability reports do this by reporting the latest level of key financial soundness ratios. there is a new body of research that suggests the assessment value of these reports could be enhanced by including at least a qualitative discussion of the near term outlook for these ratios based on various policy assumptions. i fully recognize, of course, that the preparation of these fsrs is resource intensive and particularly challenging for smaller central banks. thus, conferences and seminars, like this one, where we bring our ideas and experiences together, are an invaluable learning opportunity. we need to leverage off each other if we are to do this exercise successfully. as all of you know all too well, the range of dis - aggregated commercial bank information that central banks in developed countries take for granted is sometimes difficult to collect in our region where the culture of disclosure is not deeply rooted. this makes our effort to develop fsrs all the more challenging but at the same time all the more necessary. let me end by wishing you all two days of very stimulating discussions. i am confident that this conference will further our efforts at strengthening regional financial stability and i thank the ccmf and the idb for making all this possible. bis central bankers ’ speeches

ewart s williams : financial risk management opening remarks by mr ewart s williams, governor of the central bank of trinidad and tobago, at the caribbean centre for money and finance conference, port - of - spain, 26 march 2012. * * * good morning ladies and gentlemen let me add my own words of welcome to all our participants of this very timely seminar on financial risk management. as you know, the seminar forms part of a wider project involving the central banks in the caribbean / caricom region. the project is being funded mainly by the inter - american development bank ( idb ) that has partnered with the university of the west indies ( uwi ) and caribbean centre for money and finance ( ccmf ) to make this initiative possible. i would like to say a special word of welcome to former president of the caribbean development bank and now acting executive director of the ccmf, dr. compton bourne and mrs. michelle cross - fenty, country representative of the iadb, which is a major sponsor of this project. welcome also to all our distinguished participants from our regional central banks and regulatory bodies and from the international and regional financial institutions. i also thank the media for their presence. it is no secret, ladies and gentlemen, that our financial systems have been severely tested in the last few years by the outbreak of the global financial crisis whose powerful shock waves have not only rattled financial markets the world over, but also triggered a deep recession with which many countries are still grappling. for the most part, regional financial systems displayed remarkable resilience to the global financial crisis, even though our economies were buffeted by the global recession that ensued. regional financial systems, however, faced their own challenges arising from the collapse of the stanford bank and more notably, from the demise of the largest regional conglomerate, cl financial. the stresses faced by cl ’ s financial subsidiaries ( clico insurance, clico investment bank ( cib ), british american and baico ) tested the foundations of the regional financial system, which even so, proved to be resilient. two aspects of what has become to be known as the “ clico crisis ” are worth mentioning. the first is its regional reach : it entrapped in its net, not only trinidad and tobago, but also barbados, guyana and suriname ( that had clico subsidiaries ) as well as the oecs and the bahamas, which housed baico insurance companies, all clf subsidiaries. the second aspect that