Prime Min­is­ter Dr KeI­th Row­ley is call­ing for greater co­op­er­a­tion be­tween Amer­i­can and Caribbean Banks. He made the call while speak­ing at the open­ing of the Round­table Dis­cus­sion on De-Risk­ing and Cor­re­spon­dent Bank­ing in Bar­ba­dos to­day. 

The fol­low­ing is a press re­lease from the Of­fice of the Prime Min­is­ter:

Prime Min­is­ter Dr the Hon. Kei­th Row­ley is call­ing for greater co­op­er­a­tion be­tween Amer­i­can and Caribbean Banks.
 
Dr Row­ley made the call while speak­ing at the open­ing of the Round­table Dis­cus­sion on De-Risk­ing and Cor­re­spon­dent Bank­ing held at the Lloyd Er­sk­ine San­di­ford Cen­tre in Bridgetown, Bar­ba­dos to­day (Wednes­day 20th April, 2022).
 
The Prime Min­is­ter said, "We be­lieve that there is great progress to be made from do­ing busi­ness with us and the facts will sup­port that not the fic­tion, not the dis­crim­i­na­tion, not the dis­re­spect. It is pos­si­ble that Caribbean banks can be­come and we must be­come an in­te­gral part of the Amer­i­can bank­ing sys­tem and by ex­ten­sion the world glob­al bank­ing sys­tem.”
 
The event is be­ing co-chaired by the Prime Min­is­ter of Bar­ba­dos, the Hon. Mia Mot­t­ley and Con­gress­woman Max­ine Wa­ters (D-CA), Chair­woman of the US House Com­mit­tee on Fi­nan­cial Ser­vices.
 
The Round­table Dis­cus­sion on De-Risk­ing and Cor­re­spon­dent Bank­ing fol­lows a num­ber of en­gage­ments be­tween CARI­COM and Con­gress­woman Max­ine Wa­ters on the mat­ter since 2019.
 
Prime Min­is­ter Row­ley met with Con­gress­woman Wa­ters dur­ing a vis­it to Wash­ing­ton D.C. in 2019 and held a meet­ing with her in March 2021, dur­ing Trinidad and To­ba­go’s Chair­man­ship of the Con­fer­ence of Heads of Gov­ern­ment of the Caribbean Com­mu­ni­ty (CARI­COM). Both of these meet­ings fo­cused on the is­sue of de-risk­ing and cor­re­spon­dent bank­ing.
 
Chair­woman Wa­ters is be­ing ac­com­pa­nied by U.S. Rep­re­sen­ta­tive for Ohio's 3rd Con­gres­sion­al Dis­trict, Con­gress­woman Joyce Beat­ty, U.S. Rep­re­sen­ta­tive for Col­orado, 7th Con­gres­sion­al Dis­trict, Con­gress­man Ed Perl­mut­ter, U.S. Rep­re­sen­ta­tive for U.S. Vir­gin Is­lands, At-Large, Con­gress­woman Stacey Plas­kett, U.S. Rep­re­sen­ta­tive for Texas, 29th Con­gres­sion­al Dis­trict, Con­gress­woman Sylvia Gar­cia and U.S. Rep­re­sen­ta­tive for Louisiana, 2nd Con­gres­sion­al Dis­trict, Con­gress­man Troy A. Carter.
 
Oth­er CARI­COM Heads of Gov­ern­ment in at­ten­dance in­clude the Prime Min­is­ter of Be­lize, the Hon. Juan An­to­nio “Johny” Briceño, the Pre­miere of Cay­man Is­lands, the Hon. Wayne Pan­ton, Prime Min­is­ter of Do­mini­ca, the Hon. Roo­sevelt Sker­rit, Prime Min­is­ter of Grena­da, the Hon. Kei­th Mitchell, Prime Min­is­ter of Guyana, the Hon Mark Phillips, Prime Min­is­ter of Saint Lu­cia, the Hon Phillip Pierre and the Pres­i­dent of Suri­name, His Ex­cel­len­cy Chan San­tokhi.