The Tribune

MORE than 170 executives from over 50 companies attended last week's financial technology (FINTECH) seminar hosted by the Bahamas Financial Services Board (BFSB) and ALIV.

"FINTECH is changing the way that we do business, and it's imperative that we understand the opportunities and create an environment to leverage them. We are very pleased with the interest expressed by our members," said BFSB's chief executive, Tanya McCartney.

The seminar began with a presentation by Brandon Caruana of Sterling Financial Group. He has more than 15 years' experience in planning, developing and managing the successful roll-out of complex technology projects, and addressed 'Blockchain Assets' and the 'Distributed Economy'.

Brian Jones, Deltec Fund Services' managing director, and Christel Sands-Feaste, partner at Higgs and Johnson - two members of BFSB's FINTECH Working Group - gave a presentation on opportunities for the Bahamas in this area, policy considerations and the next steps.

The event was moderated by Gravette Brown of Aliv. BFSB created a FINTECH Working Group in November 2017 to explore opportunities for the financial services sector to leverage technology in its repositioning and growth.

The group's main focus currently is education, and increasing awareness of FINTECH opportunities in the Bahamas.

It is working on drafting a policy position on FINTECH, which will make recommendations to the Government on how to best create an environment conducive to its growth.