Dutch supervision on banks in BES islands

The Finance Ministry in The Hague is look­ing into the possibility of improving the oversight on com­mercial banks in the Caribbean Netherlands.

The banks in the three overseas special bodies Bonaire, St. Eustatius and Saba (also known as BES islands) are all branches of banks established in Curacao, so in practice they are supervised by the Central Bank of Curacao and St. Maarten (CBCS). The Dutch Central Bank only moni­tors for integrity issues.

According to State Secretary of Home Affairs and King­dom Relations Raymond Knops, “The Ministry of Fi­nance is investigating how this can be arranged better.” He was answering questions by CDA-parliamentarian Joba van den Berg, who asked specifically about the situ­ation in Statia.

“There is one bank, but it takes months to open an ac­count. If your passport expires, they stop the account. “The Dutch Central Bank normally checks not only so­lidity, but also a bit of business operations. It would be nice if these practical problems can be solved,” she said.

The Daily Herald.