Statement, Director of Financial Services, St. Lucia

• Author: Ingrid Bullard
• Pages: 5-8

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Statement by the Director of Financial Services, St Lucia

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Statement by the Director of

Financial Services, St Lucia

Ingrid Bullard

I WISH FIRST OF ALL to extend warm greetings to our delegates and special

greetings to those who have come from abroad to join their Saint Lucian

counterparts in what I am certain will be two days of stimulating and exciting

discussion on legal issues emerging from recent developments in International

Financial Centres around the world.

I commend the Faculty of Law, University of the West Indies for their

initiative to conduct this inaugural workshop and thank the University for

selecting Saint Lucia at a time when we are preparing our Nation’s launch as

a premier International Financial Centre of high repute.

I pay homage on this occasion to the late Professor Stanley Reid, of the

University of the West Indies, who had a vision for the Caribbean and its

place in Global Finance and the International Financial Sector. He was

convinced that what would be an important engine for the region’ s economic

growth and development, was a brainful of applied knowledge, to be provided

in great part by the University of the West Indies and managed by our region’s

managers.

•From my own observations, as Saint Lucia prepares for its launch as

an International Financial Centre, it seems quite clear that some of

Saint Lucia’s most reputable firms and professionals with whom I

have had a long established working relationship in the domestic

financial services sector, other business sectors and professional

bodies, seem well poised to meet the criteria of a ‘fit and proper’

person, which is statutorily required. This term is wider than a

‘qualified’ person and requires in essence honesty, competency, and

solvency to engage the international financial services sector.

The Financial Services Supervision Department under my Directorship is

committed to ensuring that the International Financial Services Sector conducts

its activities with a high level of probity, efficiency, professionalism and respect