AFTER A DELAY OF TEN MONTHS, CARIBBEAN CBI REGULATORY COMMISSION CHOICE WILL NOT SOLVE THE INDUSTRY'S SYSTEMIC PROBLEMS

The East Caribbean Currency Union, nearly a year after the five CBI passport-issuing states entered into a Memorandum promising the prompt formation of an international regulatory commission to police their programs, has appointed an obscure Saint Lucia attorney to draft the relevant legislation which the commission will employ to rein in its members.

The Memorandum was executed in response to external pressure for systemic reform of CBI & CIP programs throughout the East Caribbean, especially those in Saint Kitts & Nevis, and in Saint Lucia, after allegations of fraud, money laundering and corruption surfaced, without any governmental response from the leaders of those countries.

We first question why the newly-appointed individual has been given a seven month period to draft what should be a routine task. Next, given the lack of experience on the part of the individual appointed in both financial crime and due diligence, we fail to see how any effective, and enforceable, legislation will result from her tenure as drafter of the legislation. Finally, coming from a very small law firm in Saint Lucia, a country with perhaps the worst record of official corruption linked to its CIP program, will she be able to discharge her responsibility free from intimidation and undue influence?

Frankly, the best choice for a candidate to prepare the legislation would have been any major US or UK law firm with relevant experience; which would eliminate any possibility that stakeholders, powerful government officials, and influential individuals in the local private sector would exert any influence upon the finished product. Will the legislation actually have teeth, for enforcement purposes, and will it solve the rampant problems which have infected the CBI industry for a decade? if not, then meaningful reform will not be accomplished, and the problems it presents remain.