Investment Financing Tops The Agenda of FSB/RCG: A Meeting In Barbados

Date: 12/3/2015
Author(s): Central Bank Of Barbados

Funding for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) is high on the agenda of the ninth meeting of the Financial Stability Board Regional Consultative Group (FSB/RCG_A) which convenes in Barbados on December 4, 2015.

Countries view financing for SMEs as key to global sustainable economic growth, thus the focus on this subject during the upcoming meeting.

Delegates will also discuss the outcome of the recently released Report on Promoting Long-Term Investment (LTIF) in Asia, and are expected to draw on the Asian Experience to develop an agenda for the RCG_A‘s work on LTIF. They will pay particular attention to investment flows among countries and examine any vulnerabilities in relation to liquidity in the financial system and how banks manage their assets.

The framework which countries use to review each other’s bank supervisory policies and approaches, the handling of banks that are critical to the financial system as well as shadow banking are all agenda items.

Participants will also come together on December 3, one day before the official meeting, to discuss issues related to correspondent banking. Increasing regulatory costs have led to a reduction in the provision of such services, which pose a threat to countries worldwide, including Barbados, that rely heavily on them to facilitate international business and financial services. The whole-day discussion will focus on concerns regarding the reduction in correspondent banking services, global developments in this area, actions that have been taken to date, initiatives currently underway across the globe, and ways to lower the risks associated with this type of banking. Participants will also examine a World Bank Study on Correspondent Banking Services.

Governor of the Central Bank of Barbados Dr. DeLisle Worrell shares the chairmanship of the FSB/RCG_A with Carolyn Wilkins, Senior Deputy Governor, Bank of Canada.

The FSB was established to coordinate, at the international level, the work of national financial authorities and international standard-setting bodies as well as to develop and promote the implementation of effective regulatory, supervisory and other financial sector policies. It brings together national authorities responsible for financial stability in significant international financial centres, international financial institutions, sectorspecific international groupings of regulators and supervisors, and committees of central bank experts.

In 2010, the FSB set up the regional consultative groups to expand and formalize outreach beyond its membership and to provide an institutional mechanism for interested authorities and FSB members to interact on the vulnerabilities affecting the regional and global financial systems.

About 35 overseas participants will be in attendance at the December 3 meeting, and about 20 for the December 4 event. Both meetings are closed to the public.

December 2, 2015