. the new coupons are lower and maturities are longer, with limited issuance of short - term treasury bills. in addition, several of the new instruments will be redeemed in tranches rather than as bullets, enabling a gradual reduction in the debt stock. an added feature of some of the new securities structures is a natural disaster clause, which takes account of our nation ’ s vulnerability to natural disasters by affording government the option to defer debt service payments, on the occurrence of a catastrophic weather event. apart from the passage of the debt holder ( approval of debt restructuring ) act 2018, which gives effect to the debt restructuring, there have been consequential amendments to the existing body of legislation governing public debt issuances, namely the local loans, treasury bills and tax certificates and the savings bonds acts. in addition, parliament also passed the dematerialisation of government securities act 2018 to provide for the issuance of statements rather than physical certificates for the new instruments. this change to the issue format, as well as in the nature of the securities, has resulted in the need for the bank to alter its pre - existing software to facilitate ease of issue of statements. the process has taken somewhat longer than originally envisaged, but our staff has been working assiduously with our software providers to manage this transition in an effort to enable the timely issuance of the new statements. i have been advised that, pending any last minute technical glitches, the process for issuing statements in the new format should begin today. an important benefit of the issuance of securities in this book - entry format is the resultant settlement efficiency that can be facilitated. currently, the trading of government securities on the secondary capital market is characterised as thin and one impediment to trading activity is the length of time it takes for securities ’ transfers, with respect to the registration of ownership. with securities now being issued in a dematerialised, book - entry format, it is envisioned that secondary market activity will be executed more timely and efficiently, compared to what was feasible with physical certificates. the central bank is planning to introduce a web - based interface between its bond registry, the brokers and the barbados stock exchange, whereby brokers will have read - only access to verify the holdings of investors seeking to divest their securities. this will be supported by a messaging facility with the central bank to ensure that the transfer process is effectively completed. at the outset, it is unlikely that there

regard and devise attractive instruments. for any secondary market to operate efficiently, whether in bonds or other securities requires market makers. this has been a long time in coming but i believe that we are close to making this a reality in barbados. there also has to be confidence in financial institutions and financial policies. poorly run companies with weak balances sheets and cash flow profile will not attract investors. moreover, they will cause confidence in well - managed firms to fall. where poor decisions lead to financial losses and collapses in one subsector, because of the high level of financial integration, the consequences can be widespread. the local, regional environments today are significantly different from what existed when we held our last capital markets conference. on the domestic scene the trend towards consolidation in the financial sector has continued. the local stock market index which rose by 26. 4 % in 2004 fell by 6. 8 % in 2006. the performance of the mutual fund component of the market which had been registering annual growth up to 2004 seems to be levelling off and performed below par in 2006. at the regional level many of the strongest well - established and most reputable regional companies have remained robust but some have experienced declines in their share prices during the last two years or so. however, the markets have not shown significant instability and are still relatively vibrant. the international economy however, has been beset by a serious liquidity crisis, instability in stock prices and a weakening in the us economy. it is against this backdrop that we thought it was timely to discuss some of the major issues, which are confronting the financial services industry abroad, and their impact on developments in the caribbean. the world is becoming more global and it is increasingly difficult to completely insulate ourselves from international developments. indeed this seminar comes at an opportune time both from an international perspective and from a national perspective. in the international markets the impact of the subprime problem has led to central bank intervention on an unprecedented scale. the securitization of mortgages and credit generally has served to merge the credit and securities markets and the capital markets to an extent where collateralized obligations are losing value sharply because of difficulties in the credit markets and the burden of stability has fallen on central banks. these movements have had their impact on both the equity and bond markets, so that central bank intervention in us europe and the uk have been related to maintaining stability in the capital markets as much as in the credit markets in a way which was not previously anticipated. the weakness