The Central Bank has made changes to parts of its operations following the conclusion of public hearings in the Clico/HCU Commission of Enquiry.On Thursday, lone commissioner Sir Anthony Colman summed up the work of the Enquiry and said that a report will be made on its finding.Central Bank Governor, Jwala Rambarran said the report will have useful recommendations which will be important to the bank.
"It will be guiding where we go regulatory wise and therefore, it will determine how we organise ourselves to meet those regulatory objectives," he said.Rambarran spoke to reporters following an award ceremony and presentation of the De La Rue Scholarship at the bank's headquarters, Independence Square, Port-of-Spain.In 2009, when Clico and CL Financial collapsed, the Central Bank came in for heavy criticism for improper regulation of the Insurance industry.
Rambarran said the bank is determined to turn that around.He said the Insurance (Amendment) Bill gives the bank significant enforcement capability: "I think what is key in that insurance bill is that we have learnt from the lessons of the failure of Clico and what we are seeking to do is to prevent a similar failure from happening."
Rambarran confirmed that he spoke to the counsel for Sir Colman about the outcome of the Commission of Enquiry. He said has "actually gone out and recruited an in-house actuary, we have recruited a pension specialist, we have recruited a credit specialist.
"Around the world you see pension funds under water or just basically treading water. In our last financial stability report we did indicate there were a number of pension funds facing challenges. It is important at this level here to have the kind of skill sets to go in and examine pension funds and provide the kind of regulatory advice that is needed," he explained
The Central Bank will celebrate its 50th anniversary in December and to mark the occasion, five De La Rue Scholarships will be awarded. In years after that the bank will award three scholarships. This year's scholarship winner is Natalie Thomas.