By Denise Balgobin Sunday, October 5 2008

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Representatives of various Trinidad and Tobago credit unions who attended the 2008 Credit Union Leaders Symposium at Crowne Plaza Hotel, Port-of-Spain...

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“The recent developments in the United States banking sector do hold some significance for Trinidad and Tobago, but financial crises are certainly nothing new.”

This was stated yesterday by Minister in the Ministry of Finance Mariano Browne at the 2008 Credit Union Leaders Symposium held at Crowne Plaza Hotel, Port-of-Spain, which was aimed at creating New Legislative and Regulatory Framework for the sector, not just in TT but in the region.

Browne also mentioned several such financial crises which took place over the past 20 years, including the Latin American crash, the United Kingdom’s “Black Thursday” of 1987, the Thesbono crisis in Mexico in 1991 and the Asian crash in 1997.

“Not one of the 167 IMF member countries has not had a financial crisis. But there are certain trends which have been implemented in response to these, categorised into three areas, namely capital adequacy, risk management and regulatory oversight,” he said.

In order to decrease the impact of the current US crisis on the TT economy, there is need for the growing dynamism and strength of the credit union movement to be nurtured by the government.

He said that there were approximately 483,000 persons in this country who were members of credit unions, which controlled about $6.3 billion worth of assets.

“Credit unions have expanded their products to include the provision of credit and debit cards, real estate services, travel agency services and cambios, to name a few,” he stated.

“The new legislation is vital and will ensure that credit unions continue to play a major role in development of the local economy.

“It seeks to strengthen corporate governance within credit unions, among other things, by establishing ‘fit and proper’ requirements for members of the boards and statutory committees, and by providing for greater transparency and disclosure by the board and the members.”

Also speaking at the symposium was President of the Caribbean Confederation of Credit Unions (CCCU) Michael Alleyne, who noted that the US crisis “called for immediate development of a rescue plan for the survival and safety of Caribbean credit unions, of which there are 307 in the region.”

In attendance were CCCU board members from The Bahamas, Dominica and the OECS, Barbados, Jamaica and Belize, each of whom made short presentations regarding their territory’s experience in the region, thus enabling local credit union leaders to benefit from others which have faced recent legislation and regulatory changes.