business@tribunemedia.net
FRIDAY, DECEMBER 24, 2021
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Central Bank wants to see ‘prepare for worst plans’ By YOURI KEMP Tribune Business Reporter ykemp@tribunemedia.net THE Central Bank of The Bahamas has called for recovery plans for all supervised financial institutions (SFIs) to help enable them to fully restore operations after a crisis situation. The bank, in its recently released its “Draft Recovery Planning Guidelines, 2021”, said these guidelines will apply to all banks and trust companies incorporated in The Bahamas as well as co-operative credit unions and branches of foreign banks. In the event that a SFI is a subsidiary of a larger group that SFI should be aware of how the larger group’s recovery plan fits into what the Central Bank has laid out in its guidelines. The bank said: “Local management must understand the SFI’s risk profile and be prepared to engage in discussions with the Central Bank as needed. The Central Bank expects SFIs to have relevant documentation in place to address
these matters, as responsibility for compliance with the requirements of these Guideline remains with the SFI.” “... Effective recovery planning makes a SFI more resilient to financial stress. The recovery plan should include both a SFI’s risk management framework for monitoring, and recovery options for responding to, a range of stress scenarios. These recovery options should help the SFI to restore itself to a stable and sustainable condition. Each aspect of the plan should be underpinned by detailed analysis.” Outside of the standardized report features like an executive summary and organizational structure, the plan must lay out “early warning indicators and triggers” in addition to “recovery options” and their “feasibility” and “impact” and how the recovery plans are to be rolled out over time. The bank also said: “The recovery plan should include a high-level
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Concerns mount over Treasure Cay future By YOURI KEMP Tribune Business Reporter ykemp@tribunemedia.net OPPOSITION to suitor for the Treasure Cay resort mounts as more residents strike out in opposition to Dr Mirko Kovats, with one being a backup bidder for the resort. Craig Roberts, a hotelier, hopes to buy the Treasure Cay resort. He has lived in Abaco for more than 31 years and developed the successful Banyan Beach Club and Bahama Beach Club Resorts. Mr Roberts told Tribune Business he fears Dr Kovats, who is an Austrian-born billionaire with a home in Lyford Cay, will “land bank” the property and not redevelop Treasure Cay.
“That seems to be Mr Kovat’s trend,” said Mr Roberts. “Our tiny community is really hurting following Hurricane Dorian in 2019. We truly need the hundreds of new Bahamian jobs and millions of D\dollars in new spending an experienced developer would bring to this amazingly beautiful place.” Francine Ojalvo Delarosa a member of the Treasure Cay Property Owners Association (TCPOA), is now saying that her earlier Facebook post directed at Dr Kovats and reported by this newspaper was “taken out of context” and that she in “no way supports” Dr Kovats buying the Treasure Cay Resort. Ms Delarosa said: “I’m going to be careful with
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Revolution here in Fin-Tech market By YOURI KEMP Tribune Business Reporter ykemp@tribunemedia.net THE Bahamas Investments and Securities Business Association’s (BISBA) president says Fin-Tech will “catapult” the financial services industry in 2022. Andrew Rolle, told Tribune Business yesterday the work the Securities Commission of The Bahamas has been doing has been “excellent” alongside the Bahamas Financial Services Board through its various working group. Together, he said, they have done a “great job” in helping to innovate the local financial services product. Mr Rolle said: “I believe that the DARE Act the Digital Asset and
ANDREW ROLLE Registered Exchanges Act - will be the Act that saves the financial services sector because you will see a number of Fin-Tech firms coming in. “We have seen what FTX Digital already, which is the third largest exchange in the world, has done to
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Cost of change from playing ‘VAT politics’ By YOURI KEMP Tribune Business Reporter ykemp@tribunemedia.net THE “era of Value Added Tax (VAT) politics” is making things difficult, one large food store chain executive said. Debra Symonette, Super Value’s president, told Tribune Business they are trying to formulate a plan to handle the VAT change to 10 percent considering the thousands of items the food store chain has on the shelves. She said: “The accounting system is the easy part. So, when the customers go to the register that will definitely be straight, it’s just the pricing of the individual items on the shelves that would take a bit more time.” Stores will have a 90-day grace period to adjust the prices of goods on the shelf after January 1 when the VAT rate will
CENTRAL BANK OF THE BAHAMAS
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