Nassau, 05 Jan 2015 – Mrs. Wendy Craigg, having completed her statutory term as the Governor of the Central Bank of the Bahamas, demitted office on December 31st 2015. Of special historical significance, Mrs. Craigg was the first female to hold this vitally important post in our national financial system. Moreover, she served with utmost distinction throughout her 10 year tenure as Governor and indeed in her prior post as Deputy Central Bank Governor as well.
It is particularly laudable that Mrs. Craigg, a career central banker, worked tirelessly to ensure that the regulatory infrastructure for banks and trust companies in The Bahamas conformed to evolving international standards and best practices. At the same time she also saw to it that the monetary stability of The Bahamas was maintained by the application of sound and sensible monetary policies and standards.
I applaud Mrs. Craigg for these outstanding achievements and thank her for her many years of dedicated service and unblemished integrity at the helm of the Central Bank. She has been a great credit not only to the Central Bank but to our entire nation.
I am pleased that Mrs. Craigg will continue to be of service to our nation as an Economic Policy Advisor in the Office of the Prime Minister.
I would also like to congratulate the new incoming Governor of the Central Bank, Mr. John Rolle, who formerly held the post of Financial Secretary and as such was the administrative leader of the Ministry of Finance. Indeed Mr. Rolle played a pivotal role in the implementation of recent public finance reforms, most notably, the introduction of the Value Added Tax (VAT) regime. For that and for his many other sterling contributions to nation-building while at the Ministry of Finance, I thank Mr. Rolle most sincerely.
In a very real sense, however, Mr. Rolle, in assuming his new role as the Governor of the Central Bank with immediate effect, is returning home. He, too, is a career central banker, and as such is ideally suited to his new appointment. I wish him well and predict that he will bring to this high office the same integrity, discipline, intellectual ability and expert grasp of monetary policy that distinguished his predecessor, Mrs. Wendy Craigg.
