ewart s williams : launch of aic mutual funds keynote address by mr ewart s williams, governor of the central bank of trinidad and tobago, at the launch of aic mutual funds, 25 july 2005. * * * thanks to the management of aic financial group limited for inviting me to present the keynote address on the launch of your family of funds, and sincere congratulations on this achievement. these are very exciting times for the financial sector and indeed for the economy of trinidad and tobago. you must have seen that a few days ago, standards and poors raised the country ’ s credit rating from bbb to the coveted a - category. that upgrade has as much to do with the strength of our financial system as with the stance of our macro - economic policies. all over the world, banking is undergoing rapid transformation - firstly, because of the forces of globalisation which have resulted in the elimination of barriers to trade and financial flows ; and secondly, because of advances in information technology which have facilitated the delivery of financial products and services at sharply reduced costs. there is now a worldwide trend towards the formation of larger banking units through mergers and acquisitions, and these larger units are leveraging technology to transform both wholesale and retail financial markets. another dominant trend is the universalisation of banking which is blurring the boundaries between bank and non - banking services. while at a somewhat more measured pace, banking in trinidad and tobago is also undergoing rapid changes. following financial sector liberalisation in the early 1990 ’ s and bolstered by a decade of robust economic growth, our banking system has expanded rapidly and has adopted new products and technologies, as well as many of the strategies of the more mature markets. total assets of the banking system have increased by one and a half times over the past decade. and even with this rapid expansion, the main financial stability indicators have remained very strong. nonperforming loans have come down markedly from 10 percent to just over 2 percent ( close to international standards ), capital adequacy ratios are well above minimum requirements ( as is necessary for a small resource - based economy subject to exogenous shocks ), and banks ’ profitability levels have soared over the last five years or so. some commercial banks have become universal banks offering banking insurance, securities, trading, leasing, and investment management under one roof. the conglomerate model is becoming more commonplace in the financial sector and the larger banks are pursuing aggressive regional growth strategies. regional expansion has provided additional growth opportunities to

who was egotistical, shiva was cutting the root problem of the mind that thinks too highly of itself. why replace the boy ’ s head with the head of an elephant? the elephant represents both gyan shakti and karma shakti. the large head of the elephant signifies wisdom, understanding and discriminating intellect. elephants don ’ t walk around obstacles, neither are they stopped by obstacles. by replacing the boy ’ s head with the head of an elephant, lord shiva replaced it with something that was beneficial to the world and for the betterment of the people. although the birth of lord ganesh appeared to be destructive, it was indeed creative and would benefit everyone involved. bis central bankers ’ speeches the message associated with the birth of lord ganesh has relevance for us here at the central bank. our power and authority to manage the financial system comes from the people of trinidad and tobago. we must exercise this great power without being egotistical. we must exercise our power in a fair and just manner, with knowledge of what actions are best for the overall health of trinidad and tobago ’ s economy. tonight, we will also see another aspect of shiva as both the creator and the destroyer. in this capacity, he is often represented as the shiva nataraja, the lord of the dance. his tandava dance is the dance of the universe, as it endlessly moves from creation to destruction, destruction to creation. until recently, scientists considered the atom to be the fundamental particle in physics. we now know there are sub - atomic particles ; some make up matter and some carry forces. movement of sub - atomic particles involves a set rhythm. this is called laya in indian thought. laya is the attribute of shiva in his tandava dance. the movement of these subatomic particles creates energy. where does this energy go? well some of you may be familiar with the term “ big bang ” ( and i am not talking about the cbs hit comedy with leonard, penny, sheldon and the rest of the gang ). i am talking about cern or the european organization for nuclear research, an international organization based in geneva, switzerland. scientists at cern are using the large hadron collider ( lhc ), the most powerful particle accelerator on the planet, to recreate the primordial conditions of the universe, and create a small version of the so - called ‘ big bang ’, by smashing atoms at near - light speed. in july