WILL GOVERNOR TIMOTHY ANTOINE, THE HEAD OF THE EASTERN CARIBBEAN CENTRAL BANK, RESIGN DUE TO THE CBI SCANDAL?

 

ECCB Governor Timothy Antoine

The East Caribbean Central Bank, which is the sole regulator for the region's financial institutions, and is responsible for monitoring all the members o the currency union, has utterly failed to control the corrupt administration of the Citizenship by Investment (CBI/CIP) programs operated by five EC states, by not stopping the illegal discounted sale of citizenships, which has led to the serious situation where a major American correspondent bank has blocked all CBI payments through its accounts, bringing construction to a swift halt in the country where that action was taken, Dominica. Is this the shape of things to come, throughout the region?

Governor Antoine's recent interview on DBSTV was a unmitigated disaster; he denied knowing about the blocking of CBI payments by a correspondent bank, as well as the widespread illegally-discounted sales of citizenships, notwithstanding the huge amount of media coverage in the region, including press conference of the area's prime ministers. He appeared, during the interview, to be totally unaware of the gravity of the current situation regarding De-Risking of correspondent accounts, insisting the everything was under control and in good hands. He cannot be so ignorant of what have become an untenable situation; the only possible reason is that he has been pressured by corrupt senior leaders to do nothing.

 Clearly, the ECCB is not exerting one iota of leadership and control over both the discounted citizenship and correspondent banking crises, which threaten the stability of the economies of the member states. Whether the Central Bank's inaction has rendered it liable to the people of the East Caribbean states, who have lost billions of dollars in CBI revenue that the ECCB failed to control, is a question now being raised in connection with a proposed Class action against the EC banks who accepted illegal CBI payments. Will the ECCB end up as an additional defendant in that action? It seems inevitable.

We call upon Governor Antoine, who has been grossly negligent in providing ECCB guidance to,  and regulatory control, over the member banks, to tender his resignation forthwith, and for the Central Bank to engage a qualified professional, with extensive central banker experience, to deal with the imminent financial dangers facing the region's banks. He should be from outside the region, so that there will be no question of undue influence from the area's political leaders, who are believed to have interfered with the Governor's independence, regarding chronic problems with the CBI programs. We note that the head of the Saint Kitts & Nevis CIU has now resigned, due to the scandal; Antoine should follow his lead.