By Fay Simmons

Tribune Business Reporter

jsimmons@tribunemedia.net

The Central Bank’s governor yesterday said the banking industry regulator is planning to complete a “substantial amount” of work on sector reforms during 2025.

John Rolle, speaking at its 2025 first quarter economic developments briefing, said the regulator strengthened the framework for financial institutions to implement new banking fees last year and is working to introduce basic savings accounts to protect low-income individuals.

“One of the priorities is to make progress in introducing a basic savings or transactional account, where it would carve out some protections against the range of fees for those who have limited financial means,” said Mr Rolle.

“So far as bank fees are concerned, there’s more work ahead of us than we’ve already achieved. Initially, we focused more on the notification period for any variations in fees and any kind of feedback that the Central Bank can give to financial institutions ahead of any new fees that they introduced.

]”That framework was strengthened towards the last quarter of 2024, and financial institutions have been communicating with the Central Bank in terms of how they are planning any variations in line with the framework that we’ve put in place.”

Mr Rolle said the Central Bank is also working to have the draft Credit Union Bill released for public consultation by summer 2025 with the reforms enacted later this year. “The Central Bank has had some follow-up discussions with credit unions in terms of the proposed framework, and we’ve made some subsequent amendments or tweaks to the draft,” he added.

“We anticipate before we get into the summer that those will be in the public space for wider consultations, because it is our objective to see the reforms enacted in 2025.” Mr Rolle said a survey has been conducted to help the Central Bank understand delays in opening bank accounts, and noted that issues with identification requirements play a role in some of the long wait times.

“Understanding the ‘why’, or the reasons why there are those delays, is important, and so we know that a part of that is the disconnect often between banks and the public in terms of the documentation requirements, so we are looking at how we can make that process more transparent,” said Mr Rolle.

“We’re also looking wherever it matters. If the Government sector is a part of the issue; whether these are documents that have to be sourced from government agencies that we can get a better result in terms of how individuals get those documents.”

Mr Rolle said a national identification system that links to the Central Bank could improve the speed of opening a new account and it has the project on its short-term list of goals.

“We started the work last year, and then 2023 in a national project which was looking at putting in place a digital national ID system for The Bahamas and Central Bank. A project such as that is also one of those effective ways of having a better infrastructure to help speed up how individuals traverse the financial system. Because one of the issues is also identity documents and how people get on board,” said Mr Rolle.

“But up front, we think that we can at least begin to identify and make more of that information available to the public in terms of what the requirements are across financial institutions. So that’s one of the projects we have on our very short-term list.”

Mr Rolle added that while some individuals will face more compliance requirements, a risk-based financial system should mean that more persons can open new accounts without significant delays and there is a need for more “streamlining” of the process.

“Now the reality, though, of having a risk-based system for account opening means that more of us should get through the process faster, but it still means that, depending on who you are and your profile, financial institutions will have to do a bit more due diligence before they open up the facilities,” said Mr Rolle.

“And in those cases, the due diligence may not, in every case, conform to any published list because, depending on a client who presents themselves and the risk, institutions will have to make requests so that they can understand better. But that’s not to say that everything that we’re experiencing now is driven by that. So we do think that there still need to be some streamlining.”