The Tribune

By YOURI KEMP

Tribune Business Reporter

ykemp@tribunemedia.net

THE CENTRAL Bank’s governor yesterday said “steps” are being taken to draft legislation for the creation of the proposed movable collateral asset registry.

John Rolle told the Nassau Conference: “The movable collateral asset registry is being scoped in The Bahamas. That would strengthen the environment for secured lending for businesses.

“The initial consultation for the collateral registry ended in August of this year. The Central Bank is now collating the public feedback that was received, and expects to work with the Government to finalise the drafting of the legislation for the registry.”

Mr Rolle also pledged that the Central Bank will “ramp up” adoption of the Bahamian digital currency, the Sand Dollar. “In our national campaign, at least one million Sand Dollars will be distributed to mobile wallet users over the next two years. We will also execute a broader public education campaign to encourage the public to use less cash,” he said.

“The Chamber of Commerce has agreed to work with the Central Bank on a survey that will be released to the local business community within the next week that will help identify some of the pain points being experienced.

“The Central Bank also plans to develop, in this general area, a scorecard for each domestic entity on inclusion and ease of doing business to motivate, benchmark more targeted improvements in these areas. And it has been suggested that once these scorecards are developed, they should be published,” the governor continued.

“Essentially what we’re getting at is that when we do the bank examinations, we will explicitly look at the systems and practices within the institutions that impact those outcomes measured against the evolving standards that the Central Bank requires, but also the standards which the institutions have documented.”