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

31 it to inspect the books of commercial banks and other financial institutions. Three commercial banks were inspected during 1974 and eight the following year; during 1975 trust companies were designated as financial institutions and three of them were inspected. The other important function of the department was to carry out internal audits of the Bank. During 1975, the minister of finance delegated to the Bank his powers under the Banking Act (1963). This gave the Bank Supervision Department the responsibility, with respect to commercial banks, for granting and revoking licences, enforcing the observation of capital and reserve requirements and ensuring the submission of returns and accounts. The first director of bank supervision was Thomas Ramsey, who was recruited from the IMF, and had previously worked in Jamaica as adviser to the inspector of banks. The chart below shows the organisational structure of the Bank at the end of 1974. Chapter 2: The Early Years: 1972 - 1975 Figure 1: Organisational Structure (1974)