can have confidence not just in the central bank, but in our financial system. when you walk out of here today i want you to leave feeling convinced the people in the central bank tower are not asleep behind the wheel. ( we take the punchbowl away, we don ’ t drink from it! ) so if you would indulge me a bit more i want you to know our supervision will be comprehensive. the central bank is not simply confining its interests to risks faced by its regulated entities. our supervisors will go beyond to risks posed by other entities in the financial system. fourth, our supervisors must be adaptive. the central bank is adapting to changes at the regulatory perimeter, with an eye to new or unregulated areas. finally, central bank supervisors must be conclusive. supervisors will not be afraid to follow through conclusively on their inspection findings and to ensure matters identified reach their final resolution. the central bank is taking every identified issue, however small, to its conclusion. the central bank is ensuring that its supervisors have both the will and the ability to act in order to prevent individual financial institutions from getting into trouble. what really defined the clico crisis, however, was the systemic aspect of a large financial institution failing and dragging others with it into the abyss. bis central bankers ’ speeches this brings me to the fourth initiative the central bank is undertaking to manage our financial system. i speak about the systemically important financial institutions, or sifis systemically important financial institutions ( sifis ) both the global economic crisis and our own clico crisis demonstrated that failure of systemically important financial institutions ( “ sifis ” ) had the potential to disrupt the smooth functioning of markets and the economy. accordingly, the regulation of sifis has been placed at the top of our regulatory reform agenda. the central bank has deemed five financial institutions as sifis. these are as follows : 1. unit trust corporation ( utc ) ; 2. home mortgage bank ( hmb ) ; 3. board of management incorporated under the national insurance act ( the nib ) ; 4. trinidad and tobago mortgage finance co. ltd ( ttmf ) ; and 5. agricultural development bank of trinidad and tobago ( adb ) in the case of the utc, its asset size ( tt $ 23 billion ) is about one - tenth the assets of the financial system. this is twice as much as the total assets of all institutions licensed to conduct the business of a financial

and more recently latin america are demonstrating, the economic challenges of the day require more and even deeper regional cooperation. for us here in the caribbean, regional cooperation may not merely be a desirable policy option, it may be vital for our very survival. the theme of this year ’ s conference – financial stability, crisis preparedness and risk management in the caribbean – is both appropriate and timely. just when we thought we had survived the worst of the international financial crisis, we were blindsided by the collapse of the stanford bank and the demise of cl financial, the largest conglomerate in the caribbean. the later crisis has involved not only trinidad and tobago ( with clico, british american and the clico investment bank ), but it has also touched barbados, guyana and suriname ( that have clico subsidiaries ) as well as the oecs and the bahamas, where the baico insurance companies operated. while the impact is still unfolding, there is no doubt that, when the numbers are in, the crisis of cl financial would have had an enormous human and fiscal cost. if there is any positive, it is that the crisis should finally constitute a long awaited wake - up call ; one that we cannot ignore and one that carries powerful lessons that we need to address immediately. in passing, i would like to identify three main lessons : the first is the urgent need for all regional jurisdictions to strengthen national financial legislation and regulatory practices ; the second imperative is the establishment of a framework to facilitate closer collaboration among regional regulators in the regulation of cross - border institutions ; and the third imperative is the establishment of a national crisis management plan which details how regulatory authorities would react in the event of a systemic financial crisis. an examination of the conference agenda indicates that these issues will be fully covered in the next three days. one couldn ’ t help but notice also the impressive list of presenters and participants. this should provide for stimulating discussion such that, at the end of this conference we should be able to benefit from new insights for assuring regional financial stability. it is indeed fitting that this year ’ s conference will honor the work of a great caribbean economist and intellectual – professor c. y. thomas. let me congratulate c. y. for his sterling contribution to the region, in a career spanning more than four decades. your early work in the area of monetary and financial economics has helped shape the minds of generations of students and policy - makers in the caribbean and in other parts of the world. i do look forward to