By NATARIO McKENZIE

Tribune Business Reporter

nmckenzie@tribunemedia.net

Several existing web shop operators already possess Financial and Corporate Service Provider licenses that allow them to conduct legal lending activities, their attorney revealed yesterday, blasting what he described as “pandering” to the commercial banks.

Wayne Munroe, who represents the owners of five existing web shop chains, acknowledged that operators who have engaged in lending practices would have to obtain a Financial and Corporate Service Provider license to continue these activitie,s as the Gaming Bill and associated Request for Proposal (RFP) prevent web shops from conducting any other business without the relevant approvals.

“We know that the gaming legislation has to do with gaming, and there is already existing legislation with regard to Financial and Corporate Service Provider licenses,” Mr Munroe said.

“People may be surprised that a number of the companies and entities that ran web shops had a Financial and Corporate Service Provider license. People assume a lot of things. People who assume that these persons who are lending money are doing so without the relevant licenses just show their bias because they assume that.”

Mr Munroe added: “The commercial banks were the ones who said that they were not going to deal with anyone in gaming, and then complain that people in gaming choose to lend other persons money or act as banks.

“I think the complaint was that they were acting as banks and not charging the exorbitant fees that the commercial banks charge. When that arises there is an issue.

“The issue is, as the Attorney General would have said previously, that it has nothing to do with gaming and is the subject of other regulations. That’s a matter for a different regulatory regime, and whether what you do amounts to banking, banking is defined in a very particular way.”

Mr Munroe said the new gaming legislation contained several restrictions that likely came about due to concerns expressed by the commercial banking sector.

“One of the complaints was that if I have an account with a particular web shop, I could fund the account and then I could perhaps take the money in another island without being charged any fees,” he explained.

“Banks would have problems with that because they hit you every time you use their cash machines, and all they are looking to do is institutionalise their excessive earnings from the Bahamian public while they ship our jobs to Trinidad, Jamaica and Barbados.

“The Gaming Act deals with that, because it says that a customer can only withdraw winnings, and I suppose that that was a reaction of the Government to that. If I put money on to my account and suddenly I decide that I really don’t want to game with that any more, under the Gaming Act I can’t take it off,” Mr Munroe said.

“I think that is a reaction to the commercial banks and really is unwarranted. I ought to have the ability, if I’m going to put $100 on my account, game with that and then decide that if something came up and I need $50, I should be able to go and get it. They are ensuring that I can only draw off my winnings. This pandering to commercial banks is just amazing.”

Mr Munroe added: “From where we stand the only objective of the Government is to make sure in terms of our country assessment by these foreign powers that they re regulating all activities that they need to be regulating, and if there are activities they should be regulating, they are.

“My clients are the ones who asked for regulations in the first place. They do not have a problem with being regulated. Now they may not quite like the price of it, but that’s another issue.”