Questions are being raised about foreign exchange access for overseas investment.
The issue came up during actuarial consulting firm Eckler’s recent 2025 Pension Investment Conference at Hilton Barbados Resort.
Responding to a query from a member of the audience following his presentation, Central Bank of Barbados Governor The Most Honourable Dr Kevin Greenidge said that generally speaking the monetary authority was liberal in enabling access to foreign exchange.
He added, however, that the Central Bank was working with commercial banks and others to remove whatever inefficiencies existed in the process of getting such funds for investment.
Speaking later on during his presentation, Fortress Fund Managers chief executive officer and chief investment officer Peter Arender, as he has done in the past, asserted that “access to foreign exchange does remain a challenge”.
“None of us, I believe . . . has the ability to manufacture the amount of international investment exposure that we and everybody in the room would like. So we do still operate in a constrained environment in that respect,” he stated.
The Central Bank’s third quarter economic review stated that Barbados’ foreign reserves were $3.3 billion at the end of September, a $145.6 million increase from the end of 2024.
Greenidge was asked if, since the foreign reserves were in a healthier position, it would be easier to get foreign exchange for investment purposes.
“We are very liberal in applying and allowing that to happen,” the Governor responded, while acknowledging there was sometimes some “friction” in the financial system.
Greenidge said, for example, that he sometimes received calls from individuals communicating challenges in converting local currency to foreign exchange and that in checking on the issue found out that the funds were “in a queue” being processed.
“So there are some inefficiencies but our foreign exchange framework and policy remains quite liberal. I don’t know any incident in which we have declined a request for transfer [of foreign exchange],” he noted.
“Be that as it may, you do appreciate that if someone comes with a huge request, say millions and millions [of dollars], then we have to . . . ensure that we have a sufficient pool of reserves, . . . but generally we are very favourable.”
“Various companies, including [National Insurance], have been given permission to invest more. So, yes, we are improving that work with the financial players to ensure that we are smooth and efficient in terms of how things are happening and that there is no gap, but collectively there is no issue,” he added.
Arender, however, still saw a challenge.
“You need to earn returns on your assets, and anything that gets in the way of us doing that is a problem. Access to foreign exchange is the raw material of our collective financial security,” he said.
“We know that access to foreign exchange is the raw material for the things we wish to consume, sometimes the machinery or other capital tools we need for our businesses, but it is also very much a raw material for our collective financial security.
“And often, I think it doesn’t get that respect, and we need to, any chance we get, remember that it deserves that.”
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