The Eastern Caribbean Central Bank (ECCB) has published its Independent Auditors’ Report and Financial Statements for the Financial Year ended 31 March 2024.
For the 2023-2024 financial year, ECCB attained a record profit of $80.2 million, the highest ever in the Bank’s history.
The financial year, dubbed a year of ‘Reflection, Celebration and Implementation’, in honour of the ECCB’s 40th Anniversary, saw the Bank continuing to deliver service excellence to the governments and people of the Eastern Caribbean Currency Union (ECCU) in fulfilment of its purposes and strategic priorities.
In pursuit of its mandates for monetary and financial stability, the ECCB advanced work on the establishment of a Regional Standards Setting Body for the regulation of the non-bank financial sector and for an Office of Financial Conduct and Inclusion.
Work also advanced towards the operationalisation of a credit bureau for the Currency Union, the launch of which is planned for later in 2024. The Bank maintained its focus on modernising payments in the region with the conclusion of its central bank digital currency pilot and work on the development of an instant payments system.
In addition, the first ever Financial Inclusion and Literacy Survey for the ECCU was successfully completed, providing the ECCB and its partners with data to design programmes that will arm the ECCU people with skills and knowledge to become financial literate and resilient.
The Bank advanced other key strategic initiatives over the financial year. Those included the launch of its new website in July 2023; bolstering its risk management and business continuity framework; and investing in its data analytics capabilities in an effort to deliver on its strategic priority of data and digital transformation.
Looking forward, Governor of the ECCB, Timothy N. J. Antoine says that the Bank will continue to advocate for The Big Push Challenge proffered in January 2023 at the launch of the Bank’s 40th Anniversary celebrations.
The Big Push calls on the governments and people of the region to take collective actions to double the size of our economies over the next 10 years, thereby helping to elevate the quality of life of our people.
The Governor reinforced the Bank’s commitment to the region, saying that the ECCB family will continue to toil assiduously for the people of the ECCU.
Click here to view the ECCB 2023-2024 Annual Report.
SOURCE: Eastern Caribbean Central Bank
This means nothing to me. Your bank fees continue squeezing savings. BOSL still not paying employees. Dividends still not seen. Ecfh is for the few. Keep your news to yourself
Amidst all this financial and economic regression faced by Caribbean citizens, especially in St. Lucia, the ECCB wants governments to make a big push to double the size of our economies. Well how does the ECCB propose that governments do that doubling? Being a central bank, obviously that entails more government borrowing of enormous debts that will put ever more back breaking pressure on the tax paying citizens who are already below the poverty line.
How does a country double it’s economy when it can’t even feed its people without borrowing for it? It can’t! What the ECCB is really proposing here, is that we double our debt and taxes because inevitably that’s what government does since they have no inclination nor the capacity to create any productive enterprise that will increase the country’s income to fund it’s expansion. If you doubt this, you obviously haven’t been paying attention to where government spending actually goes.
I hope the citizens are reading between the lines of those statements made by the ECCB. In effect, what will happen is that inflation will keep doubling, living standards and quality of life will keep falling as it has been for the past decade, crime will keep rising, inequality will increase thereby creating two classes, namely the haves and the have-nots. Have you noticed that our once up and coming middle class is fast disappearing, meanwhile, politicians who produce nothing seem to be getting incredibly rich.
Can’t wait to hear the usual daft spill about attracting direct foreign investment. To the observant St. Lucian, the influx of foreign investment has always been accompanied by the loss of some national assets and coastal sovereignty. Case in point, CIP and the leasing of our ports to Global Ports Holdings or should I say the de facto selling, of the country’s main source of revenue.