As the umbrella body for credit unions gives assurances that deposit insurance for these cooperatives will not burden or exclude them, Prime Minister Mia Amor Mottley is being asked to ensure the process is transparent and has no conflict of interest.
Barbados Consumer Empowerment Network (BCEN) executive chairman Maureen Holder and attorney Marvalee Franklyn have written the Prime Minister to call for “a full and transparent public disclosure and independent investigation into the process leading to the proposed Credit Union Deposit Insurance Bill”.
The correspondence, dated October 17 and sent under BCEN’s letterhead, said the proposed legislation would in effect “force small financial credit unions to merge or be subsumed by larger credit unions”. It was copied to the chief executive officer of the Financial Services Commission, head of the Barbados Co-operative & Credit Union League, the Auditor General’s Office and the media.
“The emerging evidence suggests that the policy process guiding this legislation may have been unduly influenced by external actors whose interests and affiliations present clear conflicts with the national interest,” Holder and Franklyn wrote.
“This draft bill seems not to be available and it seems like our cooperative partner and attorney has not seen it either or is unable to locate it.”
Meanwhile, the Barbados Seventh-day Adventist Co-operative Credit Union Ltd, one of the smallest credit unions, has announced it will be hosting a meeting tomorrow [last Thursday] at 7 p.m. at the East Caribbean Conference of Seventh-day Adventists Conference Centre, Brydens Avenue, Brittons Hill, St Michael, in collaboration with BCEN.
It is inviting all credit unions and co-operative financial institutions to what is being called a “stakeholder consultation on deposit insurance and regulatory developments affecting credit unions”.
Speaking recently when the League held its annual general meeting at the Lloyd Erskine Sandiford Centre, president Kemar Cumberbatch said deposit insurance was a “win” for credit unions.
“This has been more than ten to 15 years in the making and it is a historic step. Deposit insurance is not about individual people; it is about, and it is for, each and every one of our depositors. It is about the people, the members, the affiliates, protecting their savings, the savings of hard-working Barbadians who, as of June 2025, had deposited more than $2.19 billion in financial cooperatives,” he stated.
He said the League was “thrilled that members can soon rest assured that this new layer of security will be there for their savings. Most important, the framework will have the backing and the full faith of the Government of Barbados”.
Cumberbatch pointed out that credit unions would need to meet standards in capital adequacy, profitability and liquidity.
The specifics of these requirements is a concern for BCEN and Barbados Seventh-day Adventist Co-operative Credit Union Ltd, which argue that it would force the smallest credit unions to merge with larger ones or close.
However, Cumberbatch said recently it was “not about creating burdens for credit unions but about building strong, responsible institutions that members can trust. These standards are not meant to exclude anyone, they are meant to protect everyone – especially our members”.
In the letter to the Prime Minister, who is also Minister of Finance, BCEN is calling for several things. They include suspending the parliamentary advancement of the legislation until an independent, transparent review is completed by the Auditor General or a parliamentary subcommittee; full stakeholder consultation with small cooperatives and credit union members before any legislative enactment; and the development of a tiered compliance framework that allows small societies time and technical assistance to meet standards gradually, avoiding unnecessary closures.
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