Financial Services Advisor

Vangie Bhagoo-Ramrattan, head of the economic research unit at First Citizens in Port-of-Spain, Trinidad and Tobago: “Since the global economic recession in 2008-2009, with a pervasive situation of mounting debt and low growth, the Caribbean continues to struggle with economic recovery. As a result, several countries elected to solicit assistance under an IMF program to restructure debt and/or initiate a series of fiscal reforms. This continued depressed economic environment, coupled with the rising threat of more frequent and intense weather events in the region (such as hurricanes and flooding), may have been some of the key decision points in selling off Caribbean exposure. Adding to these issues, in mid-2019, the Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions (OSFI) in Canada raised the capital buffer on Canada’s ‘big five’ banks amid concerns about economic conditions. At that time, the OSFI imposed a 25-basis point hike in the domestic stability buffer to 1.75 percent of the banks’ risk-weighted-assets, and another hike was announced to bring the rate to 2 percent effective Oct. 31, 2019. CIBC, Scotia and RBC are among the ‘big five’ and will be affected. They are expected to…”