Moree: Financial Services Sector Needs Serious Reforms -
By Candia Dames:
Nassau, Bahamas -

The Bahamas aspires to become a more competitive financial services sector, but it is not prepared to do what is necessarily to get more business, including reform its immigration policies, according to attorney Brian Moree.

"If you’re out trying to get that business, do one thing or the other. Either understand what the market demands are and be prepared to do them or don’t go after the business and don’t expect them to come here," said Mr. Moree, who chaired the Financial Services Consultative Forum, which was commissioned under the Christie Administration.

He said the reality of the current situation is that some multinational companies are just not prepared to Bahamianize some of their positions.

"That’s just the fact of life. These are the senior positions. They’re not always very many of them – it may be three or four of the top positions. They’re going to say to you ‘We’re a multinational company; we don’t expect to be put under an injunction to Bahamianize certain of [our] positions’," said Mr. Moree, who was the special guest on the Love 97/JCN TV programme "Jones and Company", which aired on Sunday.

"I’m not saying this is good or bad. I’m saying this is the reality in the marketplace, and so you’re going to find that many times you have language as an issue because a lot of these banks, of course, they need persons who speak their own language or the languages of their client."

He added, "It comes down to whether we are prepared to do what we need to do to unleash the potential of this business."

But Mr. Moree stressed to the show’s host, Wendall Jones, that he was not suggesting that Bahamians ought not be encouraged to pursue senior positions in these offshore companies.

"I’m a great advocate of establishing career paths for qualified Bahamians – absolutely; This is our country and you need to be given an opportunity to get the best you can and to further your career in your own country," he said.

"If you can’t do it in your home country where can you do it? So I’m with you on that. What I’m just trying to suggest to you is that in certain kinds of multinational businesses there are going to be a handful of jobs [that won’t be available to Bahamians]."

Mr. Moree added, "My point is this: we can get to those positions if we have an opportunity, but don’t expect to be the CEO of this Canadian company where you’re running the entire bank because it won’t happen."

He said The Bahamas needs to make a judgment regarding what it’s prepared to do to get the business it wants.

"Do we send the message that really that business can come to us or if it doesn’t come to us we don’t care? Or do we say we’ll understand that there may be four or five positions in an institution depending on its size that we can’t reasonably expect them to give a commitment to hire a local person.

"They might hire one, but we can’t expect a commitment because in that business coming in they’re going to create another 30 or 40 jobs in senior positions for qualified Bahamians. You’ve got to make the judgment and I’m not suggesting that it’s an easy judgment."

Mr. Moree said he has serious misgivings about The Bahamas’ willingness to do what is necessary in order to get the results it wants.

"Are we willing to make the major reforms that are necessary in order to have big changes going forward? Intellectually, maybe, but in our hearts I don’t think we are ready yet," he said.

Mr. Moree said another challenge facing the financial services industry is the slowness in getting legislation passed to make the sector more competitive.

"We were competing with every other government department to get legislation drafted and it would take years to get legislation from start to finish and then of course we were competing with the parliamentary agenda for all the other legislation, so what happens is we simply are not competitive," he said.

Mr. Moree said the government needs to place focused attention on financial services. One way this could be done, he suggested, is for four or five parliamentary draftsmen to be dedicated solely to the industry.

Mr. Moree added that he has not been happy with the quality of governance in the country for many years, as it relates to the management of the financial services industry.

He said quantum growth of the industry would mean more than just "tweaking the edges."

Despite the fact that it is not maximizing its potential, Mr. Moree said the industry is doing "quite well" in The Bahamas.

"The industry is stable, it continues to contribute – depending on what statistics you look at – somewhere around 15 to 20 percent of our GDP. It employs directly some 10,000 people, and indirectly probably 22,000/23,000 people. It contributes over $200 million to our revenue base in terms of government revenue, which I think is 19 percent/20 percent of our tax base," he noted.

"The average salary in the financial services industry is anywhere between 75 percent and 100 percent higher than the national average salary, so you can see that it serves our country and our people very well. My real concern is not that our industry is in danger of being marginalized…I think we’ve stabilized the industry, but really, the issue is, where do we go from here?"

12 November 2007