Finance

TCI Finance Launched at Corporate Event

Published

1 month ago

March 21, 2024

Deandrea Hamilton

Dana Malcolm

Staff Writer

#TurksandCaicos, March 21, 2024 – The Turks and Caicos must diversify its income and TCI Finance will play a key role in that process according to Paul Pirie, CEO of the company. Pirie was speaking at a March 4, corporate launch.

“During the pandemic it was painfully obvious the need for economic diversification— our very close neighbors the Cayman Islands came through the pandemic pretty unscathed economically and that’s because of their diversification,” Pirie highlighted.

He maintained that financial services were an incredibly resilient industry pointing out record years of profit recorded by banks like JP Morgan during the pandemic.

“Financial services make money in any condition,” he stressed.

TCI Finance was born out of recommendations from a 2018 review of the local finance industry and Pirie revealed its mission and vision. The mission of the two-man organization is to protect, promote, develop and grow the TCI financial services industry through engagement and collaboration with domestic and international governments, regulators, organizations, citizens and media.

The vision was to create a sustainable and inclusive financial landscape, delivering elite financial services to forward thinking investors and a place where businesses, communities, families and ecosystems thrive together.

In order to successfully carry out its mandate TCI Finance identified four core pillars to work off of including Proper financial infrastructure, growth of existing businesses, innovation and marketing.

The CEO explained that outside of diversifying the economy, the exponential growth in businesses and capital locally would need matching growth in the financial services sector anyway.

“We can all see around us the incredible growth that’s happening on the islands right now but this growth requires a huge amount of ancillary services. A service critical to any economy is financial services,” he continued “it’s much more than banking. I’m talking about regulatory compliance, wealth management, investment banking, insurance, accounting, auditing. It’s a huge array of services.”

Pirie maintained that despite great potential, right now the TCI isn’t the place of choice for finance.

“I asked our compliance team [at JP Morgan] would you consider doing business in the Turks and Caicos and they said absolutely not; not because it has a bad reputation because its not on the list.”

The goal then, of TCI Finance, the sister agency to Invest TCI, is to establish the islands as a key player on the global finance map. TCI Finance does answer to an established board of government and private sector reps. That board was introduced by Former Chair and Minister of Finance E Jay Saunders who oversaw the creation of TCI Finance. The Board includes:

Chair – Minister of Finance
Vice-Chair – David Stewart (in his capacity as President of the FIA)
Angela Musgrove (in her capacity as CEO of Invest TCI)
Athenee Harvey-Basden (in her capacity as PS, Ministry of Finance)
Niguel Streete (in his capacity as CEO, Turks and Caicos Financial Services Commission)
Drexwell Seymour, Certified Public Accountant
Mr Marcus Samuel (in his capacity as Chair of the Bankers association)
Sally-Ann Astwood (appointed by the Hon. Leader of the Opposition)
Ryan Blain (on behalf of the accountancy association)
Rochelle Musgrove
Ervine Quelch (corporate development, former NIB board member)

Washington Misick, TCI Premier and current Finance Minister maintained that this push was to make the TCI a leader in Financial Services.

”We want to be careful that our appetite for risk does not confine us to being followers,” he said.

Misick gave his full support to TCI Finance at the event.

”The government is committed to this and we will see it through regardless because at the end of the day the multiplier effect of having TCI Finance reverberates through the entire economy,” he maintained.

While it does this, Independent of the government and the private sector the team is foremost interested in helping local businesses and stakeholders according to Pirie.

“TCI Finance is here for you, the things you need come and see us, call us, email us. We’re here to help you. We’re a non-profit organization so we are here to help grow your business and help you attract new business.”

TCI Finance is located above its sister agency Invest Turks and Caicos Agency at Courtyard Plaza on Leeward Highway.

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Caribbean News

RBC appoints new Head of Caribbean Banking

Published

3 days ago

April 24, 2024

Shanieka

NASSAU, April 21, 2024 – RBC Financial (Caribbean) Limited, (“RBC”) has appointed Chris Duggan, a native of the Cayman Islands, as Senior Vice President and Head of RBC Caribbean Banking, effective April 1, 2024. He succeeds Chris Ronald, who has been leading the bank’s operations in the Caribbean for the last 2.5 years and has recently returned to Canada as Regional President, Atlantic Provinces at RBC.

Duggan, who is based in Nassau, The Bahamas, is taking on responsibilities as Head of RBC Caribbean Banking to carry out the bank’s strategic direction and manage the overall business strategy and vision across the Caribbean region. He has a career spanning more than two decades in the financial industry across both the United States and the Caribbean.

Most recently, he was the Cayman Islands Government Representative to North America, in Washington DC, primarily focussed on financial services. Prior to his tenure for the Cayman Islands Government, he served as a senior executive at DART Family Office and Butterfield Bank.

RBC’s Executive Vice President, Personal Financing Products, Erica Nielsen said “We’re delighted to welcome Chris to RBC. Born and raised in the Caribbean, Chris has a deep understanding of the regional financial landscape and a passion for representing the culture. He is highly driven, outcome focused, and passionate about building trusted relationships with clients, communities, and employees. His appointment demonstrates our continued commitment to the region. I am confident that under Chris’ leadership, Caribbean Banking will continue to grow and serve our clients and communities.”

As an active member of the communities where he lives and works, he has held leadership roles on the boards of numerous charitable organizations over the years. Duggan was awarded the Queen’s Certificate and Badge of Honour in recognition of his outstanding service to the Cayman Islands community during the COVID-19 Pandemic.

Finance

Largest ever Nat’l Budget to end on $436 million

Published

3 weeks ago

April 8, 2024

Shanieka

Dana Malcolm

Staff Writer

After two increases the Turks and Caicos budget is expected to end the financial year with expenditure below $440 million according to Washington Misick, TCI Premier and Finance Minister.

Misick tabled the fourth and final Supplementary Appropriations Bill in the House of Assembly on March 21 and the debate began on March 24. With that Bill the premier sought to reduce the budget from $442 million to $436.29 million.

The budget had increased rapidly in the earlier quarters of the fiscal period, then it sunk.

The initial budget earmarked $424.3 million for the year with the expectation that the year would end in a deficit. But during the first supplementary appropriations bill in September 2023 that was raised by $13.4 million bringing it to a grand total of $437.6 million.

That extra money was to be used for the following:

$4.2 million for community development, including road improvement and more.
$1.4 million for a Community Centre in Bottle Creek
$450,000 on the long-awaited refurbishment of the sports field in South Caicos.
$1.4million for consultancies
$1 million on repatriation
$1 million to Social Programs
$1.8 million to InterHealth Canada
A $500,000 injection to the country’s Climate Resilience Coastal Protection Study
$851,000 for software and consultancy to get the Turks and Caicos off the EU blacklist
$2 million for the cleaning of government agencies

Then during the second appropriations bill total expenditure was pushed further to $443.4 million increasing the planned deficit to $25.6 million, which would have been funded from cash reserves. That money was to be used for:

An $800,000 investment in a reverse osmosis plant in Grand Turk;
An $800,000 allocation for the renovation of the Bambarra Beach Vendors Market;
A $600,000 check for the Boundary Commission and claims against the government;
An allocation of $800,000 for community enhancement and environmental sustainability;
$410,000 for Educational investment (furniture and equipment for schools);
$276,000 for Law enforcement resources (additional police vehicles);
$250,000 for National Security improvements (the hiring of a strategic lead) and;
$180,000 for Maritime security enhancement (the purchase of a 3rd sea patrol vessel

By the third supplementary in February, $1.07 million was shaved off the budget and money reallocated from some projects to fund others. Here’s what those reallocations should have looked like:

$9.5 million to acquire land and settle an ongoing claim against the government.
$7 million as seed funding for a Mortgage Corporation.
$300,000 to rollout e-Government projects for the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Home Affairs.
$800,000 for Miscellaneous adjustments for other Supplies, Materials and Equipment – Governor’s Office, Civil Servant Week and allocation to support the ongoing pay and regrading exercise and productivity audit.

That brought the country to its final and most recent (4th) supplementary tabled by Misick on the 21st of March. Despite an expected deficit of about $18.4 million from projected income of $417.8 million, the country could end the year in a surplus as the economy has outperformed income estimates and the government continues to underspend.

Crime

Avoid Credit Card Fraud, CIBC makes security changes

Published

3 weeks ago

April 8, 2024

Shanieka

Rashsed Esson

Staff Writer

To foster greater security, CIBC First Caribbean is making changes to credit and debit card Point of Sale terminal transactions to reduce the risk of fraud associated with “key-entered” transactions.

In a statement issued on March 19, the organization informs that after April 30th, 2024, vendors will no longer be able accept payments by manually entering card numbers. If they attempt to do so the transaction will be declined.

After March 30th, only Chip and Pin or contactless are approved.

The bank expressed that this is being done as it is their priority given the ongoing issue of fraud.

The BAI Mission, a financial services entity, reports that in 2023, fraud trends increase compared to previous years, as technologies evolve, as pointed out by a financial services leader.

It reports that according to recent NICE Actimize Fraud Insights, the first half of 2023 saw a 22 percent increase in fraud globally, as the move to cashless payments increase.