How has the Barbados Stock Exchange taken measures to help stimulate the economy?

When we saw our local market contracting, we developed an initiative called the International Securities Market (ISM). This was very capital intensive, we had to make sure the Stock Exchange was ready for this, in terms of implementing rules and that we had the infrastructure in place.

We determined that we not only wait on the local market to bounce back. Looking at it, for Barbados to really grow, we need to look for the global market. Barbados has a working population of 133,000 people. We have an overall population of 280,000, realistically the numbers are just too small for us to really grow. We decided we needed to go outside of BB, so at the BSE we set up the ISM so that we could fully take advantage of the international market.

What is the main focus of the International Securities Market?

The main focus of the ISM is to take advantage of the companies that are domiciled here, especially Canadian companies. Barbados is the second biggest receipt of FDI from Canada, second only to the US. Although, most of the money does not stay here, it is invested throughout the rest of the world, particularly in Latin America. Barbados is used as a hub, because of its geographical positioning, but mostly because it is a low-cost jurisdiction and because of its double-taxation treaties. Canada uses Barbados when it invests internationally, from Africa, Latin America, to Southeast Asia and even the US. So in order to capitalise on the benefits of Canada investing in Barbados, we have implemented the ISM.

The other thing to keep in mind, Barbados is a jurisdiction in which the legislative framework and legal framework is identical to Canada’s. If you look at the Canadian Companies Act and the Barbados Securities Act, you will see that it is replicated. For the the professional, the accountants and lawyers in Toronto, they do not need to learn anything new when they come to Barbados. Additionally, our legal system is independent, there is certainty as to how the judiciary works.

In looking at what has been implemented, could we see Barbados as the hub of International Wealth Management?

 International business services and international business tourism pay our bills, and that this is our future. So when I travel to raise awareness for the ISM, I am also inadvertently promoting Barbados as a future hub of International Wealth Management. The ISM was launched on March 15 this year, 2016 and since then I have been to Toronto to meet with the service providers and promote what we are doing. I have spoke about it in Buenos Aires and Mexico City.

Financial services is all about building relationships, so people have to get to know you, to trust you and most importantly to like you. This is what Barbados has to do. People are not going to break fixed relationships unless there is a pull factor from you. For me, Barbados sells itself, but the BSE has to prove that it can deliver what it says it delivers in a cost effective and efficient manner. In launching the ISM, we made sure our pricing was up to 30-50% cheaper than    our competition.

The whole idea is to promote Barbados, and the virtues of doing business in BB and specifically what we offer at the BSE through the ISM. We made sure that when we developed the rules of the ISM they were international best practices, we hired international consultants in order to do this effectively.