Changing gears now, the Prime Minister held a press conference this
morning - and in a sidebar spoke very questioningly about the Belize
Bank acquisition of Scotiabank Limited. He says the central Bank has to
take a long hard look:
Rt. Hon. Dean Barrow - Prime Minister
"That is the elephant in the room, that if somebody is going to own, if
after the merger there is going to be this kind of super dominant position
of the new entity. If this proposed acquisition is to be approved by the
central bank of Belize, whose jurisdiction it is, it would put the Belize
Bank in a dominant position. Now, Government has to weigh in on this
matter. I hope that whatever I say can be divorced from what people will
see as any personal feud between Lord Ashcroft and me. If the regulator is
the entity to grant approval for the final consummation of this deal, that
must mean, if you can grant approval inherent in that is that you can
withhold approval. So, all I am saying is that the public and I see now
there are beginning to be statements made, I noted very carefully what the
Chamber of Commerce had to say. I have had phone calls from various
interested persons. I just want to offer, again, the assurance that this is
not a done deal. I would certainly suggest that this is so huge. You are
talking about creating a bank that will be too big to fail. You will have
to walk on tiptoes around, try to treat with very gingerly, and all these
things are very critical. I would suggest, that perhaps without any
prejudice to the expertise resident in the Central Bank, that it might be
just as well to get some kind of expert assistance. This is hugely
consequential and without wanting to prejudice the outcome of the process,
I know for sure that it can only take place in a way that at the end of the
day can satisfy Belizeans that even if they don't agree with whatever
decision the Central Bank ultimately makes that it was a decision properly
come to on the basis of looking at everything that needs to be looked at.
Government does not give instructions to the Central Bank with respect to
something like this but there is a Central Bank board, majority of which is
appointed by the minister of finance, you can be assured that apart from
the faith that I naturally have on the governor, I will also, not just by
way of what I am saying publicly today, but by way of personal interaction
with the board, try to make absolutely sure that this thing is handled with
the complete thoroughness."
The Prime Minister notably spoke much more decisively than he did last
week when we asked him the same thing. Of course, since then the
government has lost a massive and costly judgement at the CCJ to the
Alliance - and you'll hear the PM's reaction to that later on.
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