| El Sol Dominicano |
| "Noticias Diarias de la Republica Dominicana en Ingles Desde 2004 " |
| Friday, June 29th, 2012 |
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Banks fraud and the Caribbean
Story Text & Photos © 2012 by Dominican Today Jun 29 2012 14:29PM
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 Dominican Today -
Recent developments in Europe and North America, involving Barclays Bank and others in the manipulation of Libor rates, are truly shocking.
They bring into question not just the role of the banks concerned, but suggest that a once measured and conservative profession that people trusted, has in major financial centres become so self-seeking and lacking in morality that bankers at the highest levels are prepared to condone or order actions amounting to fraud on a global scale.
As this is being written the story is still unfolding.
In outline it is about falsifying the benchmark interest rate against which almost all global financial transactions take place. Libor –short for the daily London interbank offered rate - is the rate that establishes the costs to banks to borrow from each other and the figure against which almost all other rates are set for financial products and instruments ranging from swaps to complex derivatives, mortgages, personal savings and loans.
Around 20 major banks, in the US, Europe and Japan have received requests from their regulators to provide information on the setting of the Libor rate over a number of years, including at critical moments during the 2007-9 global banking crisis. The allegation is that these banks artificially lowered their Libor submissions to enhance their financial health.
Of these so far only Barclays has admitted that its traders and bankers did so and a fine of US$300m has been levied on it by UK and the US regulators.
But in an indication of quite how serious the consequent breakdown of trust is, the former British Chancellor of the Exchequer, Alistair Darling, has said that the Libor rate was one of the key indicators he used during the 2008 global banking crisis to assess the strength of banks, but that he now realised this was seriously flawed. “If you can’t trust banks on something as basic as this, what confidence can you have in them,” he told the London Financial Times.
Whether what is being revealed will result in legal actions against banks and individual bankers remains to be seen. However, the US Department of Justice is pursuing criminal and civil investigations and there is talk of class actions against the banks involved.
These are of course not just matters of concern to those who live in Europe or North America. In a global economy, banks operate across borders, Governments and institutions rely on them, and their role is as essential to the Caribbean’s financial systems as it is to the countries in which they are located.
For many who have lived or worked in the Anglophone Caribbean, the coupling of Barclays name with this scandal may seem unreal. Most remember Barclays Bank in the Caribbean, its network of offices and branches and the bank’s head office in London, as the repository of traditional values.
The bank of course gradually exited from the Caribbean. In 2001 after a 150 year presence, Barclays and CIBC announced that they were in discussions. This led to the combination of their retail, corporate and offshore operations in the region to create FirstCaribbean International Bank. Then in 2006 CIBC acquired Barclays’ stake, becoming the majority shareholder in FirstCaribbean
Although Barclays Caribbean ethos may now seem a little quaint, in many ways it has, together with the strong corporate culture of the Canadian banks in the region, resulted in the welcome if sometimes frustrating conservatism of Caribbean banking and its ability to remain more or less untouched by the crisis in the global banking system.
Notwithstanding, the regional financial system has been severely tested. Caricom Finance Ministers are still trying to work out how to respond on a regional basis to the multi-billion dollar failure in January 2009 of the Trinidad-based financial conglomerate, CLICO and its subsidiaries; and just three weeks ago a US judge sentenced Allen Stanford to 110 years in jail for his part in a US$7bn international fraud run out of Stanford International Bank Ltd in Antigua.
What has protected mainstream Caribbean banking is its limited integration with international financial markets. As a consequence it largely avoided exposure to the collapse of Lehman Brothers and others US financial institutions, did not buy mortgage backed securities, is not involved in high risk financial instruments like derivatives, has relatively low levels of overseas borrowings, has not confused wholesale and retail banking operations, and continues to have a clear commercial and social purpose.
Despite this there should be no room for complacency.
There remain worrying gaps in the ways in which financial institutions in the region are supervised and regulated. Economic and commercial linkages, common vulnerabilities, smallness and the danger of instability in the global financial system all suggest that there is pressing a need for a single set of rules supervised by a regional regulatory institution.
In an important speech in March that deserves much wider attention, Ewart Williams, the Governor of Trinidad’s Central Bank suggested a series of remedies. He argued for strengthened financial sector legislation that covers the banking system, insurance and the credit unions and a need to substantially upgrade and consolidate financial sector supervision. He also recommended all countries having national insurance schemes to cover deposits in banks to protect the less well off and for there to be national and regional crisis management plans. He made the point that financial sector legislation in the region is grossly deficient when compared to what obtains in advanced or emerging market countries and that there was a danger of regulatory arbitrage if legislation was not harmonised across the region.
Caricom Heads of government need to take more seriously the importance of what Governor Williams and other Central Bankers are saying, not least because of continuing global economic uncertainty. Unfortunately the absence of effective regional governance through Caricom may set aside or delay implementing many of these important, stabilising and common sense approaches.
What is now happening in North America and Europe suggests that avarice, the corrosive sense that big banks are above the law and will always be bailed out, and the continuing crisis in the Eurozone, could return to threaten the global economy . If unchecked there is a danger of social instability not least because these forces cast governments and social policies aside and leave ordinary people feeling helpless and marginalised. If there is another crisis, this time the Caribbean, now economically less robust, may not be immune.
David Jessop is the Director of the Caribbean Council and can be contacted at david. jessop@caribbean-council. org
Previous columns can be found at www. caribbean-council. org
Read original at Dominican Today.
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Education says school year ends June 2; waste not time left
Story Text & Photos © 2013 by Dominican Today May 20 2013 16:59PM
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 Dominican Today -
Santo Domingo- The Ministry Education on Thursday identified the regions and districts which have lost the most days of classes and instructed them to comply with the teaching calendar and to take full advantage of the time left before the school year ends on June 21.
Education Ministry Supervision director Esperanza Ayala said the regionals of Barahona, San Francisco de Macoris, San Pedro de Macoris and San Cristobal have lost the highest number of says.
Although the official didn’t specify the reasons behind the lost schooldays, the absences on the Monday after a three-day weekend are notorious across the country.
Read original at Dominican Today.
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Ambassador Yzaguirre gets Dominican Republic’s highest honor
Story Text & Photos © 2013 by Dominican Today May 20 2013 16:59PM
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 Dominican Today -
Santo Domingo- The Dominican Government bestowed Thursday
the Duarte, Sanchez and Mella Medal of Merit on U. S. ambassador Raul Yzaguirre,
for his effort to strengthen commercial, political and cultural cooperation
between Santo Domingo and Washington .
President Danilo Medina Decree No. 125-13 bestows the
Dominican Government’s highest honor on Yzaguirre, as head of the U. S.
diplomatic mission for nearly three years.
The U. S. Embassy recently announced the diplomat’s resignation
for health reasons, adding that Yzaguirre departs pleased with the knowledge that
bilateral relations continue to prosper.
Read original at Dominican Today.
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Navy boat heads to war games in St. Lucia
Story Text & Photos © 2013 by Dominican Today May 20 2013 16:59PM
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 Dominican Today -
Santo Domingo- Navy Chief of staff Edwin Dominici on Thursday
announced that the military branch will take participate in the naval exercise
“Tradewinds 2013,“ to be held in St. Lucia from June 3.
He said a Navy commission headed the sendoff at the Sans
Souci Naval Base for the crew of the Coast Guard boat “Orion,“ which will
represent the Dominican Navy in the exercise.
Antigua, Barbuda,
Bahamas, Canada, Belize, Colombia, Jamaica, Guyana, Suriname, Trinidad and El
Salvador will participate in the exercise.
Read original at Dominican Today.
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Spain busts cocaine rings, nets 13 Dominicans
Story Text & Photos © 2013 by Dominican Today May 20 2013 16:59PM
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 Dominican Today -
Barcelona- Thirteen Dominicans, five Spaniards and four
Colombians have been arrested for trafficking cocaine in Barcelona, where 4. 5
kilos of the drug were also seized, authorities said.
Most of the cocaine was hidden inside containers full of cosmetics,
according to the source quoted by local media.
The detainees, 17 to 48 years of age, formed part of two independent
groups, but who supplied drugs to each other according to consumer demand.
In the course of the investigation a shipment of 3. 7
kilos of cocaine from Dominican Republic was intercepted in Barcelona on April
17, transported by plane to Brussels and then by a Spanish train, with three
people arrested in that operation.
In another operation on May 3, the 19 people remaining were
arrested and another 800 grams of cocaine and other related material were
seized.
Read original at Dominican Today.
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Homes sold for less than RD$2. 0 million will be tax-free
Story Text & Photos © 2013 by Dominican Today May 20 2013 16:59PM
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 Dominican Today -
Santo Domingo- The Government will not charge the ITBIS tax
(IVA) on any home sold for less than RD$2. 0 million until October, when the Mortgage
Market Development and Trust Law 189-11 takes effect.
Presidency chief of staff Gustavo Montalvo discussed the topic
in a National Palace meeting Thursday with prominent developer Rafael Bisonó, who
said his company will start construction of 5,000 homes near San Isidro Airbase,
Santo Domingo East, in the coming weeks.
He said each home will sell for RD$895,000 with a fixed 8. 95%
rate for six years, as stipulated in the government’s release of RD$20. 0 billion
from the banks reserve’s, of which RD$6. 0 billion will be used to build dwellings.
The builder said his company’s commitment to president
Danilo Medina is to build quality and adequate housing for poor families.
He said his construction group Constructora Bisonó has
built more than 40,000 homes and plans another 24,000 over the next two years,
at a cost of RD$50. 0 billion.
Read original at Dominican Today.
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Customs nabs Canadian who allegedly smuggled 295,000 euros
Story Text & Photos © 2013 by Dominican Today May 20 2013 16:59PM
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 Dominican Today -
Santo Domingo. – The Customs Agency on Friday accused Canadian citizen Christopher Peter Jetter with smuggling 295,000 euros into the country at Punta Cana International Airport, and was charged in the La Altagracia Province Office of the Prosecutor.
Customs spokesperson Abinader Fortunato said the confiscation was the result of a joint operation by Customs, military and Airport Security agents. “Dominican authorities not only proceeded to seize the money, but also investigate the Canadian citizen as to the source of the millions of pesos. “
Jetter’s arrest at Punta Cana’s airport came after he arrived on a flight from Paris, carrying the cash distributed in small envelopes in various compartments of a suitcase.
Read original at Dominican Today.
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Ombudsman: another highly-paid bureaucrat or real defender
Story Text & Photos © 2013 by Dominican Today May 20 2013 16:59PM
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 Dominican Today -
Santo Domingo- A survey by elnational. com. do found what has been stated for years regarding the designation of an Ombudsman, that most people see it as just another highly-paid bureaucrat with little power to help people harassed by big government.
The outlet’s poll found that 78 percent of its readers called the post unnecessary while 22% agree with it.
The Senate designated Zoila Martinez Ombudsman on Wednesday, from a short list submitted to by the lower Chamber.
Opponents said the Ombudsman’s functions will collide with those of the Justice Ministry and the Constitutional Court.
Senate president Reinaldo Pared on Wednesday said the Ombudsman post was unnecessary but figures in the Constitution, “so we must respect that. ”
But those who defend the post argue that it would curb abuses by agencies and officials against the defenseless population.
Misguided
In a related poll, 82 percent readers of elnacional. com. do called Martinez’s designation “unfortunate” while 18% support it.
Read original at Dominican Today.
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Medina upbeat on Security Plan’s results, albeit long term
Story Text & Photos © 2013 by Dominican Today May 20 2013 16:29PM
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 Dominican Today -
Santo Domingo- President Danilo Medina on Monday said he’s confident that the National Security Plan will have great results, even though they‘ll be long term.
He said he expects the installation of surveillance cameras together with the 911 emergency calling systems will be fundamental to the Plan’s success.
Medina asked the population for patience, since the initiative will include social programs.
The head of state spoke at the Alfa & Omega publishing house to mark the sixth anniversary of the death of its president and former Customs director Michael Cocco.
Read original at Dominican Today.
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Lunchtime Weather Report on this May 20, 2013
Story Text & Photos © 2013 by The Dominican Sun May 20 2013 16:29PM
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 The Dominican Sun - Across the Dominican Republic in the last 24 hours the highest observed temperature by DRSol was 88 at La Isabella. The coolest reading came from Las Americas with an overnight low of 70. A few spotty light to moderate showers and thunderstorms were reported, and rain is being observed right now as well at Samana. Skies were generally partly cloudy. Winds are averaging 10 mph from the SE, with a peak gust to 23 mph seen at 3PM yesterday afternoon at Puerto Plata International. By the Numbers DR cities reported rain 10% of the time, and thunderstorms 2%. Average reported rainfall intensity on a scale of 0 to 100 was 43. Cloud cover totaled 54%. Click above to view summaries for the last week or last month. Last updated at 12:28PM. Read original at The Dominican Sun.
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NYC photo exhibit features Dom. Rep. folk dances
Story Text & Photos © 2013 by Dominican Today May 20 2013 15:59PM
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 Dominican Today -
NY- A wide-angle photos exhibit will feature folk dances from the Dominican Republic, co-sponsored by VICINI and the City College of New York Dominican Studies Institute will be staged until August 17 at the campus’ historic Amsterdam Plaza, in Manhattan.
The exhibit, which is free of charge, opened on Friday, in the square is located next to City College Amsterdam Avenue between 136th and 138th West streets in Upper Manhattan.
Read original at Dominican Today.
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