Both Sides of The Coin: The Story of The Central Bank of Barbados 1972-2017

152 governor and Winston Cox were part of a delegation led by Prime Minister Adams that visited London, Frankfurt, Toronto and New York to introduce Barbados as an offshore banking centre. As a result of this initiative, Barclays Bank International was granted the first licence to operate an offshore bank (from January 1981). Another early familiarisation visit took place in May 1981 when the Bank was represented by Edward “Teddy” Griffith and Director of Bank Supervision, Clyde Johnson at the first World Offshore Financial Centres Fair in London. It was during the early 1980s as well that the Bank started, in collaboration with the BIDC, the Insurance Corporation of Barbados and other private entities to attend the annual meeting of the Risk and Insurance Management Society (RIMS) in the US and Canada, a trade show for a variety of insurance products. During 1982, the Bank continued to promote the offshore sector at high-profile financial meetings. These included conventions of the Association of International Banks and Trust Companies and the International Tax Planning Association. In the same year, it teamed up with the IDC and the BDB to make the first promotional tour of Latin America when the governor was invited by the Banking Association of Colombia to address its 20th Anniversary Banking Convention in Cartagena. Griffith also visited Venezuela and Colombia to hold preliminary discussions on a promotional drive in Latin America. The Bank’s ability to deal with all of the legal issues that were related to the offshore sector was strengthened when David King was recruited as legal officer in 1982. Another important initiative by the Bank was the establishment of the Offshore Advisory Committee in 1982. That committee provided technical advice to the Ministry of Transport and Works on the drafting of the Shipping (Incentives) Act that came into being later in the year. It also advised Government on the Exempt Insurance Act which became law in March 1983. In that year, as well, the Bank helped to review the International Business Companies (IBC) Act, negotiate the new double taxation treaty with the US and organised a conference on risk management for top US and UK executives. The passage of the Exempt Insurance Act meant that Barbados now had legislation that covered a range of offshore financial services; the others were IBCs, offshore banks