| |
Contact:
Julita Peter
Monday, May 03, 2004 - St. Lucia’s newest financial institution, Bank of
St. Lucia International Limited (BOSLI) has opened its doors in Rodney Bay
Village. Governor General, Her Excellency Dame Pearlette Louisy last week cut
the ribbon symbolising the formal opening of its doors.
BOSLI is a wholly owned subsidiary of the East Caribbean Financial Group of
Companies in St. Lucia and provides private banking services to international
non- resident clients.
BOSLI offers an online securities and foreign exchange service through a
partnership with Saxo Bank out of Denmark. Stressing that the institution was
not a branch of the Bank of St. Lucia, Chairman Marius St. Rose noted that it
had its own systems and controls and would be audited by the parent company’s
internal audit department and the group’s external auditors. Mr. St. Rose added
that the aim of BOSLI was to provide “a competitive first world service from a
third world country”.
“Our systems and information management software are state of the art, giving us
round-the-clock access to multiple currencies, so that our clients have
continuous access to international markets irrespective of international time
zones. We are working assiduously with telecommunications service providers to
challenge them to ensure that the telecommunications service quality we make
available to our customers is at no less than international standards,” he said.
BOSLI he assured, will be maintaining physical and electronic contact with the
major international banks, and can be considered to be offering financial
brokerage services amongst other services to its customers. “As with other
businesses profitability and growth will be our goal”, added Mr. St. Rose.
Compliance Manager of BOSLI, Jodi Boodhoo says central to the bank’s mission of
providing the best international private banking services is the preservation of
the integrity of the bank and St. Lucia as a whole. St. Lucia he says, can
realize several gains as long as it maintains its reputation. “For this reason
the Bank of St. Lucia International has implemented strict compliance and
anti-money laundering policies which address the application process,” said
Boodhoo.
The government of St. Lucia is the largest institutional shareholder of the East
Caribbean Security Exchange with a 19.9% holding. Minister for International
Financial Services, Honourable Dr. Kenny Anthony who delivered the feature
address at the bank’s opening, noted that St. Lucia’s International Mutual Fund
Act had been recognized and considered as a model by one of the island’s
established neighbouring competitors.
St. Lucia has established a Financial Intelligence Authority responsible for
investigating suspicions of money laundering and terrorist financial activity.
|
