PM Rowley meets CARICOM Heads, calls for greater cooperation between American and Caribbean Banks

Caribbean, Trinidad and Tobago: Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley called for greater cooperation between American and Caribbean Banks.

Dr Rowley made the call while speaking at the Roundtable Discussion on De-Risking and Correspondent Banking opening held at the Lloyd Erskine Sandiford Centre in Bridgetown, Barbados, on April 20, 2022 (Wednesday).

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 co-chaired by the Prime Minister of Barbados, 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 some engagements between CARICOM and Congresswoman Maxine Waters on the matter since 2019.

Prime Minister Rowley met with Congresswoman Waters during a visit to Washington DC 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.

US Representative is accompanying chairwoman Waters for Ohio’s 3rd Congressional District, Congresswoman Joyce Beatty, U.S. Representative for Colorado, 7th Congressional District, Congressman Ed Perlmutter, U.S. Representative for US Virgin Islands, At-Large, Congresswoman Stacey Plaskett, US Representative for Texas, 29th Congressional District, Congresswoman Sylvia Garcia and US Representative for Louisiana, 2nd Congressional District, Congressman Troy A. Carter.

Other CARICOM Heads of Government in attendance include the Prime Minister of Belize, the Juan Antonio “Johny” Briceño, the Premiere of the Cayman Islands, the Wayne Panton, Prime Minister of Dominica, Roosevelt Skerrit, Prime Minister of Grenada, Keith Mitchell, Prime Minister of Guyana, Mark Phillips, Prime Minister of Saint Lucia, Phillip Pierre and the President of Suriname, Chan Santokhi.