The growth rate of the financial services sector continues to be “very flat, according to attorney Brian Moree, who heads the government-appointed Financial Services Consultative Forum.
“We’re not losing business in terms of statistics, but we’re certainly not gaining any,” said Mr. Moree during a round-table discussion on the Love 97 programme, “Jones and Company”, which aired on Sunday.
“I know the financial services sector relatively well. I believe that we’re not scratching the surface of the potential that we could realize in the financial services sector if we are prepared to address a few fundamental issues.”
But he said in order to address some of the issues at hand politicians have to be prepared to make decisions.
“All of these decisions will not be popular with everybody and so they translate into votes,” Mr. Moree said. “And so what you really have is, unfortunately, a paralysis of the status quo because in order to break out of the status quo, someone has to be prepared to do what is necessary and make some hard decisions.”
He said the present system of governance does not lend itself to this type of political leadership because politicians tend to think in five-year terms, which is considered by people in the private sector to be short to medium term.
“The political leaders we have – unfortunately – seem to be married to the status quo,” Mr. Moree said.
Minister of Financial Services and Investments Allyson Maynard Gibson said recently that the financial services sector was poised for tremendous growth.
Minister Maynard Gibson was addressing participants in Ernst & Young’s 3rd Annual Investment Funds Symposium at the British Colonial Hilton Hotel on Friday on the current state of the financial services sector.
At the time, she revealed that the number of funds in The Bahamas was up from 673 in 2001 to 834 in 2004; fund assets were up from $89 billion in 2001 to $834 billion in 2004; and mutual fund administrators were up from 58 in 2001 to 59 in 2004. The 2003 figure was 66.
The Minister also said that securities investments advisors have decreased from 37 in 2001 to 32 in March 2005, but were up from 29 in 2002; Broker dealers were up from 13 in 2001 to 61 in March 2005; and the average salary in the sector in 2004 was $58,000.
Source: The Bahama Journal
