delisle worrell : challenges and opportunities for barbados ’ ibfs sector remarks by dr delisle worrell, governor of the central bank of barbados, at the 5th annual international business and financial services sector conference, bridgetown, 10 april 2015. * * * this annual conference is an opportunity to reflect on the challenges and opportunities for barbados ’ ibfs sector, and to assess how we may improve on our performance and mastery of our circumstances. for all of our history barbadians have made our living as tiny players on a global market. by and large, over time, we have made a success of it, and as a result we now enjoy an enviable quality and style of life. the challenges we face in the ibfs sector are of the same nature as the challenges our economy has always faced in international competition with players much larger than ourselves. the lessons of our past are that you must know your strengths and operate well within them, you must make a game plan based on those strengths, you must arm yourself fully with research and information, you should implement your strategy in a flexible, responsive way, and you should prepare and commit yourself for the long haul. these are the lessons we must apply in facing the new challenges in the ibfs sector. we face new challenges, often referred to by acronyms such as beps, fatca, fapi rules, etc. they are well known and i do not need to repeat them here, but they are serious and they affect our canadian business, which is the bulk of our sector. in responding to the current challenges we are playing to our strengths. our value proposition is that international companies can establish subsidiaries in barbados to perform international transactional services that they would otherwise do in a major metropolis such as toronto or new york. they are able to reduce costs and be more competitive because wages for skilled professionals in barbados are so much lower. they are able to offer the same quality of service because barbados boasts international levels of social and economic infrastructure, and excellent communications with north america, europe and beyond. we have regulatory and legal oversight systems that are constantly being upgraded in light of guidance from the basel committee, the imf, the fsb, the fatf, the global forum and other international bodies. we have a large and expanding network of range dta ’ s and bit ’ s. we are constantly expanding our range of products. and we are not a tax haven ; companies operating in barbados, including ibc ’ s

, like the balance sheet. importantly, he distinguished between central bank purchases of short - term government securities, as the bank of japan was doing at that time, versus purchases of longer - term securities. marvin viewed purchases of short - term securities as ineffective under the zlb, while he saw purchases of longer - duration securities as potentially powerful owing to a “ preferred habitat ” motive on the part of investors. of course, large - scale asset purchases later became a tool of critical importance for easing financial conditions in the united states and abroad. although the consequences of the predicted y2k glitch were minimal, the zlb became a central issue when the financial crisis hit. thankfully, marvin, along with others, helped lay the intellectual groundwork and created the vocabulary for us to work through some of the most significant issues facing central banks. his work is a true emblem of how researchers play a vital role in informing and shaping the policy discussion. i look forward to the upcoming conversation. thank you. 1 jeffrey c. fuhrer and mark s. sniderman, conference summary, journal of money, credit and banking, volume 32, number 4, part 2, pp. 845 – 69, november 2000. 2 marvin goodfriend, overcoming the zero bound on interest rate policy, journal of money, credit and banking, volume 32, number 4, part 2, pp. 1007 – 35, november 2000. 3 board of governors of the federal reserve system, transcript of the federal open market committee meeting and presentation materials, january 29 – 30, 2002. 2 / 2 bis central bankers'speeches