fiu presentation to iba members opening speech delivered by mrs. l. matroos - lasten acting president centrale bank van curacao en sint maarten on the occasion of the information session on : aml / ctf within the international banking sector centrale bank van curacao en sint maarten december 12, 2018 ladies and gentlemen, good evening, i would like to express my gratitude to the association of international bankers ( iba ) for its initiative in organizing this important seminar titled aml / cft within the international banking sector. i am pleased to share my opening remarks with you. this year marks the 10 - year anniversary of the global financial crisis. if we learned anything from the crisis, it is that international cooperation and policy coordination is crucial to shape a sound, transparent, and attractive financial system. as the managing director of the international monetary fund ( imf ), christine lagarde, stated “ the time to fix the roof is when the sun is shining. ” that is to say, we should not wait for ( reputational ) storms to come our way to act agile. ladies and gentlemen, our financial sector is of integral importance to achieve sustainable economic growth. suffice to say is that, though its contribution has declined over the past 20 years, the international financial services sector remains a key economic pillar of curacao. the ifs sector generates about 6 % of foreign exchange earnings, provides labor intensive high - skilled employment to more than 1, 000 persons, and contributes approximately 6 % of gdp. in addition to these direct effects, the sector has indirect spillover effects across related industries, including the business, telecommunication, transportation, and hospitality sectors. amid the increased complexity of financial transactions, it has become imperative for financial intermediaries such as international banks, to keep re - inventing themselves through new and innovative products and services. simultaneously, the supervisory role of the central bank is to ensure proper controls to prevent systemic collapse and achieve market integrity. today, i would like to touch upon the history of the international financial services ( “ ifs ” ) sector, the main challenges this sector is facing, what we have achieved so far, and what our next steps are. ladies and gentlemen, first allow me to take you back to the history of the ifs sector. by mid - 1960s curacao had become a well - known international financial center for purposes of global tax planning. however, the prosperity of the

in the mid 1980s. a changes occurred in this view. the focus became more on increasing efficiency in the utility companies. in addition, there was a growing realization that while a considerable part of the activities carried out by the utility companies had monopolistic characteristics, certain activities did not. the latter could in fact be provided in a competitive environment. hence, the utility industry or parts of it were liberalized by allowing competition. in addition, the ownership of certain companies was transferred from public to private hands. regulation was now aimed at facilitating the introduction of competition or “ creating a level playing field ”. the privatization of the uk energy sector in the 1980s triggered a wave of privatization attempts in other countries. although many countries opted to customize the uk ’ s privatization principles to fit their own specific circumstances, the common denominator in these approaches was the separation of the transmission and distribution of electricity from the production and retail sale thereof. bis central bankers ’ speeches however, the liberalization of energy markets has not always led to lower consumer prices, as expected. according to certain studies, prices might have only shifted between market segments, or even increased compared to prior to the liberalization. some studies indicate that energy prices dropped after the liberalization of the energy market, but only for businesses. private consumers, in contrast, ended up spending relatively more on their energy bill. in california, consumer prices rose following the liberalization of the energy market, while the number of power outages increased substantially. according to some energy market experts, liberalization on its own does not guarantee lower consumer prices. if private suppliers retain the possibility to ration their production and as such cause shortages, they can influence the price of electricity in their favor anyway. hence, they retain certain monopolistic powers, despite the liberalization of the market. these developments have slowed down the trend towards liberalization in recent years, and even spurred calls for the re - regulation of some liberalized energy markets including : ( 1 ) the prevention of market abuse in case of a monopoly and ( 2 ) the establishment and regulation of structures to facilitate competition in potentially competitive sectors. furthermore, independent regulatory agencies were established to execute these tasks. as a monopoly service provider, aqualectra until now has not been subject to economic regulation as there is not a body which has responsibility for regulating competition, controlling prices and protecting consumers in the water and electricity supply industry. in the past, the department of economic affairs used to advice the government on the tariffs