gathered here : 4. the first involves further bolstering financial inclusion in trinidad and tobago. our country became the 100th member of the international body, the alliance for financial inclusion ( afi ) in 2013. afi ’ s main role is to strengthen the ability of individuals across the globe — especially low income persons in remote page 2 of 5 areas — to safely and meaningfully participate in organized financial activities. in certain parts of africa, east asia and latin america many communities are effectively cut off from the banking world — most transactions are by barter, or cash, and few persons have or even know what a bank account is. trinidad and tobago is somewhat different — we do have a widespread banking presence due to the country ’ s income level, our relatively small size and our long history with banks. nonetheless, we still need to work more on encouraging, embracing and keeping the participation of several communities in the formal financial sector. in this regard, it is important for banks to pay particular attention to the specific needs of the young, the elderly and the differently abled among others as you roll out your array of services and outfit your facilities. we at the central bank are boosting our national financial literacy program in 2017 / 18 ; we are happy to partner with batt in common areas so that the man in the street has a better understanding of the importance and the options available for savings, investments, budgeting, retirement planning as well as the potential risks in the financial world. 5. a second issue relates to transparency and fairness in dealing with customers. as we develop as a society, financial transactions can tend to become more complex and opaque — sometimes you get the impression that you need to enlist a senior counsel to get you through the fine print of the contract for setting up the most basic savings account! it is therefore imperative that banks and other financial institutions commit to meaningfully simplifying their agreements and making every effort to ensure that their customers understand the terms and conditions. we at the central bank are encouraged by the relaunch of the banking code of practice a few days ago, but like mr. stoddard, the financial services ombudsman, we look forward to the principles of transparency and fairness being page 3 of 5 applied fully in practice. one specific example i would call to mind is the guideline on the mortgage market, jointly developed between the central bank and batt, to cover information disclosure and predictability in the adjustment of interest rates on loans on what for most

jwala rambarran : consolidated supervision, risk - based supervision and market discipline opening remarks by mr jwala rambarran, governor of the central bank of trinidad and tobago, at the basel ii implementation workshop, organised by the caribbean regional technical assistance centre ( cartac ), port of spain, 17 – 20 september 2013. * * * good morning first, i wish to thank cartac for arranging this basel ii implementation workshop and for inviting me to give some brief opening remarks this morning. as we all know, safe and robust banks operating in a well regulated financial system play a key role in the economy and society. one of the main lessons of the recent global financial crisis is that banks must improve their ability to manage risk, so they do not inflict serious damage on the economy. this calls for a stronger risk management culture within banks. this calls for stronger regulation and supervision within central banks and other regulatory agencies. in today ’ s discourse, most commentators assume that “ strengthening regulation ” is simply a matter of implementing international standards, of which the most important is the basel capital accord, designed by the basel committee on banking supervision. other commentators, however, have examined alternative approaches to prudential regulation beyond standards. they argue that a strategy for prudential policy must address three main weaknesses : the impossibility of fine - tuning bank safety margins in the uncharted territory that is banking in the developing world ; the need to provide insulation against the large shocks to which these economies are prone ; and the lack of enforcement that results from the concentration of political power in many such countries. this year marks the 25th anniversary of the 1998 basel capital accord, which through its two incarnations has emerged as the international gold standard for banks [UNK] capital requirements. the first manifestation came in june 2004 when the basel committee wholly rewrote the original basel accord, which has a number of flaws. for instance, it is risk insensitive, it does not differentiate between credit risk and other risks a bank typically faces, and it can easily be circumvented by regulatory arbitrage. the new accord, generally known as basel 2, represented a fundamental change of approach to regulation. the revised framework is highly complex and makes its understanding and implementation a great challenge, not only to regulators but also to the regulated community. basel 2, for example, assumes that discipline by the markets and by supervisors is beneficial. yet, as we have seen particularly, over the last five years, both markets