Central Bank of Barbados Helping Barbadians to Understand What it Does

The Central Bank of Barbados will start an information series soon to help Barbadians understand its role in maintaining their standard of living and promoting financial stability.

“With the passage of our new Act, we now have two stated objectives: maintaining the fixed exchange rate and promoting financial stability. CBB 101 will inform and educate the country about how we do that and why attaining these objectives are pivotal to Barbados’ economic management” Governor Cleviston Haynes commented.

The stability of the Barbados dollar, which was fixed to the US dollar since 1975 at BDS$2 to US$1, serves as the anchor for macro-economic policy and contributes to investor confidence over the long term.

As it relates to the promoting financial stability objective, the Bank, in association with fellow regulator, the Financial Services Commission (FSC), is responsible for oversight of the financial services sector to mitigate any systemic risks and minimise risks to people’s savings and investments.

The series explains the two objectives, provides insights into how the Bank’s overarching strategies help it to achieve its mandate, and illustrates to Barbadians how the Bank’s work impacts all of us. The themes covered include: how we maintain a fixed exchange rate; why the country borrows to support the peg; why fiscal prudence and management support the maintenance of the peg; how the regulators protect the financial system and the levers available to the regulators to address problems at a financial institution or in the system.

Other episodes will examine anti-money laundering and combatting the financing of terrorism (AML/CFT) rules and regulations and the findings of the 2020 Financial Stability Report (FSR). The FSR provides an annual health check on the country’s financial services.

“Our focus in this series is to explain how each of these issues impacts the man in the street, so we encourage everyone to tune in,” the Governor stated.

The series will air on Tuesdays on the Bank’s social media channels and CBC TV 8 at 6:37 p.m., starting on October 5, 2021