2015: Barbados is a competitive, high quality provider of IBFSs. International companies are able to increase their competitive offerings on the global market by judicious use of Barbados' IBFS centre. The economic logic that is driven by competitive forces is what drives expectations of continuing growth of IBFS services in Barbados and elsewhere.
2015: The independence of the central bank allows it to stand in for Government in the provision of infant industry finance in appropriate forms and linked to demonstrated performance, measured against clearly stated objectives. ….. For economies such as [those of the Caribbean], financial stability is the means to an end, that is, financial development. In pursuit of financial development the central bank may play the vital role of providing performance related finance for innovation, by virtue of its independent stature within the public sector.
Lecture to the Fair Trading Commission, Barbados, Accra Beach Hotel, March 14, 2014. I cited the examples of "The man who knew the price of all fish", the Emera purchase of BL&P shares, and the Libor fiasco, to make the point that the market only works when there are actual trades and when prices move slowly enough that today's price is in the neighbourhood of the price of a similar commodity when last I bought it. In cases where there is no trade, or share prices become very volatile, official intervention is necessary, but intervention must always be market‑friendly.