Aiming for stability – Bourne addresses IADB-funded project

IT is important that financial regulators and supervisors are at the top of their game.

So says Professor Compton Bourne, Executive Director of the Caribbean Centre for Money and Finance. He made the comments while addressing the participants of the Second Conference of the Inter-American Development Bank (IADB)-Funded Project – ‘Financial Risk Assessment in an Integrating Region: The Caribbean’, which was held under the theme, ‘Assessing Macro-Prudential Vulnerabilities and Policy Frameworks in a Regional Context’, at the Hilton Hotel in Barbados.

Professor Compton Bourne, Executive Director of
the Caribbean Centre for Money and Finance.

“We all know from the experience of 2008 and onward that this hasn’t always been the case and has not particularly been the case in recent times, globally and within the region. But fortunately, stimulated by what has happened in the world and in the region, there is now a determination among regulators and supervisors to get to the top of their game and to stay there,” he said.

He made the point as he explained that such determination is the focus of the IADB-funded project, where they are seeking to enhance the understanding of issues which may potentially affect the stability of the financial sector, as well as enhancing the institutional capacity of regulatory and supervisory systems. Professor Bourne added that the aim of the project is also to help improve techniques and methods for risk forecasting, risk measurement and risk management within institutions, national jurisdictions and across borders and harmonise and establish best practices.

“We are trying to achieve these things in partnership with these entities through several modalities. One being research and analysis and the writing of reports; the second being the production of templates which would guide how data is collected and analysed. Thirdly, through conferences – this being the second of two conferences so far; and through training workshops, one of which has already been held and the other is scheduled to be held in January next year in Guyana,” he stated.

With that in mind, he noted that over the two days of the conference, focus would be placed on a range of topics within the theme, including such areas as Early Warning Systems for Financial Stress Events and the Construction of Indices for Financial Stress; Developing Supervisory Systems for Regionally Important Institutions; Measuring Financial Contagion Risks; Measuring Risks and Stress Testing
in the Non-Banking Financial Sector and the Development of a Regional Crisis Management Plan.

“I am quite confident that we will have a very productive two days and at the end of it, we would have understood a lot of these things better and we would have prepared ourselves more suitably for ensuring that the Caribbean financial sector remains sound and stable,” he maintained. (JRT)