By NEIL HARTNELL
Tribune Business Editor
nhartnell@tribunemedia.net
A TRADE union leader yesterday said he had "no difficulty" with web shops providing financial services if commercial bank pull-outs meant they were "the only option" on some islands.
Obie Ferguson, the Trades Union Congress (TUC) president, told Tribune Business he took this position in the context of "the greater good" - ensuring working Bahamians and families were able to cash cheques and obtain funds essential for basic everyday living.
With BOB the latest commercial bank to confirm Family Island exits, announcing branch closures in Exuma and Eight Mile Rock this week, Mr Ferguson warned that such downsizing was having "a very severe impact" on the ability of some to access financial services.
"With the banks closing in the Family Islands, it makes it very difficult for workers to access cash and banking services," the TUC president told Tribune Business. "It then costs them what they earn on a weekly basis to go somewhere to cash a cheque.
"That, to me, doesn't make any sense. The Government has to look very seriously at establishing a facility for workers to deposit and cash cheques, and access funds, so they and their business can function as normal."
The commercial banking industry's withdrawal from the Family Islands is threatening to create a void in financial services access that is increasingly being filled by the web shop industry, and Mr Ferguson said he had no problem with this as a 'last resort' option - provided the latter sector was properly regulated.
"We have to find a way for the workers to access their cash, run their regular business and cash their cheques," he told Tribune Business. "If the regular commercial banks are not prepared to make the investment to do it, if the web shops are the route to take, so be it.
"If that's the only thing, I say: 'Why not?' I have no difficulty with that happening if that's the only way for people and workers in the Family Islands to have access to banking facilities. That's the premise upon which I would support the web shops operating in Family Islands; where there's no banks."
Asked whether using the web shops as financial services providers could also spark a further increase in gambling, Mr Ferguson replied: "I doubt that. Right now, it may very well be a possibility, but the immediate concern from the feedback I'm receiving is that people don't have anywhere to go to cash cheques.
"You look at the greater good, and who will benefit most from it. It would be hard to say workers would be more attracted to gambling. Those people who gamble are going to gamble no matter what. I don't see that as a major problem. Having the [banking] facilities is more important."
Mr Ferguson's comments again highlight how the Bahamas, especially in the Family Islands, remains a cash-based society, and the dilemma confronting the Government and wider society when it comes to the web shops.
The latter sector already acts as a money transmission business, transferring funds throughout the Bahamas at relatively low cost. It also provides mortgages and other forms of loans, all of which has alarmed the minister responsible for gaming, Dionisio D'Aguilar, who has warned that such unregulated activities could lead to this nation being 'blacklisted' again.
The Minister also criticised the web shop industry's Know Your Customer (KYC) procedures when it came to verifying a client's source of funds - a charge vehemently rejected by the Gaming House Operators Association.
The Central Bank of the Bahamas has looked to the creation of an electronic payments solutions provider regime to solve difficulties in Family Islanders' access to financial services, but has yet to issue a license.
Comments
Reality_Check 6 years, 5 months ago
EVERYONE PLEASE BE QUIET! Now cup your ears with your hands and listen very carefully. Can you hear that constant SWOOSHING SOUND in the background? That's the sound of mega millions and millions of U.S. dollars and Canadian dollars leaving our country every year for Haiti, South Florida and Montreal, Canada. This enormous yearly outflow of monies from our country is attributable to Haitians illegal residing in the Bahamas who purchase hard currencies with their Bahamian dollars to send abroad to their family members living in Haiti, South Florida and Canada. And to think our PM and Minister of Immigration appear supportive of this enormous ongoing drain of financial resources from our economy! Small wonder our Minister of Finance (K P Turnquest) has his hands full with the the grave repercussions of the slowing velocity of money in our economy. Small wonder too that our Central Bank is unable to maintain foreign currency reserves at the recommended minimum level equal to the expected value of imported goods & services for the next three months. What a joke!!!
Well_mudda_take_sic 6 years, 5 months ago
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JohnDoe 6 years, 5 months ago
Boy you and Reality your alter-ego getting desperate. They must be paying you good for you to put pen to paper for such nonsensical and inscrutable gibberish. Please go and educate yourself on the definition of money laundering.
Reality_Check 6 years, 5 months ago
@JohnDoe a/k/a @John - I see you're still singing to a big time numbers' boss for your supper?
TalRussell 6 years, 5 months ago
Comrade Obie, has your brain become addicted to the spin of the Numbers Houses? Where is this imaginary 'greater good' to rise from the numbers? There is this greatly weighted economic divide between 'winners' and 'Losers' of regularised numbers... It's called determined by mathematical probabilities, the Numbers Houses advantage — is its winning edge the Numbers Houses always has the winning edge...... How else could the numbers man's, be buying this and that for crazy amounts millions dollars, and investing millions dollars over here and over there? Why you thinks so many politicians wearing all colours t-shirts - can't wait be indebted to them?
bogart 6 years, 5 months ago
Care and caution must be taken in verifying that persons ising accounts are not passing through the money sustem proceeds oc crime particularly drug money as again ee seem prone as President Trump intentions of the wall seems to have already tightened illegal business A difficulty has aleays been that a drppsitor can claim that the money deposited is from an Asue draw. Persons purchase sevond hand vehicles and rrsell. Prrsons may build houses sprndong portions of cash in stages and then resell with funds cleaned passing through a real estate and lawyers office . Esisting businesses can inflate revenue for deposots. Businesses can make purchases in cash to suppliers and inventory product sales input into the system Persons can be fraudently hired and funds imputted into variois accounts Be a fisherman and sell lots of imaginaty fish but have cash. Buy and create a business with lots of revenue. Countless ways ffunds from illegal activities can be imputted knto the system......some indepemdent auditing agency is needed ......
sheeprunner12 6 years, 5 months ago
Who has the gonads in the FNM to ban webshops????? ......... This unregulated parallel financial services system must be done away with ........ How can an institution that has a license for internet gambling be allowed to do banking services?????? ......... Who gave the webshops cartel permission to do this?????????? ........ Both PLP and FNM are quiet on this .....HMMMMMMM.
DDK 6 years, 5 months ago
Who indeed? How indeed? The longer it goes on, the deeper it gets. Current government members are either in it up to their eyeballs or they are afraid or both!
ThisIsOurs 6 years, 5 months ago
"#A TRADE union leader yesterday said he had "no difficulty" with web shops providing financial services if commercial bank pull-outs meant they were "the only option" on some islands."
I really wish they wouldn't spout nonsense, who is he to give they ok that these organizations with DECADES upon DECADES of unsourced funds can be given banking licenses? DECADES of operating outside the law. When RbC, Citi and CIBC pull up shop, I hope he has no problem paying all the people their salaries.
Porcupine 6 years, 5 months ago
While the realities of a collapsing ecosystem, increasing temperatures, rising sea levels, our conversation here in The Bahamas could not be better scripted for keeping people dumb and ignorant. The level of maturity in our country rivals a kindergarten playground. Talk of god and everyone is a Christian expert. Anything requiring actual facts and thought, a D- conversation ensues. If The Bahamas does survive another 20 years, it will be despite Bahamian culture, not because of it. Web shops are antithetical to Christianity, decency, and the health of our nation. We have been bought and sold.
JohnDoe 6 years, 5 months ago
You are correct in your analysis of the competency of our discourse and debate in this country. It has become a battle of the loudest noise between the empty barrels. We cannot disagree without being disagreeable. All the while our children are leaving school every year by the thousands and cannot find any jobs. What do we as a society expect these children to do after being out of school two, three, four and five years and unable to find a job.
Reality_Check 6 years, 5 months ago
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TheMadHatter 6 years, 5 months ago
Wonder how wire transfers or credit card purchases for all the items imported into this country for food stores and hardware stores are going to work when there are no banks at all? LOL. We will find out.
bogart 6 years, 5 months ago
Yes there is a difficulty if web shops are the only banking option.
WEB SHOPS ARE NOT BANKS
THEY ARE NOT MEMBERS OF THE CLEARING BANKS ASSOCIATION MADE UP OF EIGHT BANKS WHOSE MEMBERS INCLUDE THE CANADIAN BANKS WHOSE POLICIES IMPOSED BY THEIR PARENT HEADOFFICES, CANADIAN SHAREHOLDERS, CANADIAN PENSION FUNDS, ....PROHIBITS THEM FROM ACCEPTING WEB SHOPS DEPOSITS.....WEB SHOP DEPODITS GO TO THE BANK OF THE BAHAMAS AND TRANSACTIONS IN THE CLEARING OR INTERBANK TRANSACTIONS HAPPEN BY THE SECOND BETWEEN BOB AND CANADIAN BANKS.
SHOCKINGLY THE LABOUR LEADER DOES NOT REALIZE THAT ALL BAHAMIAN BANKS ARE UNDER DERISKING AND LOSING FOREIGN BANKS AS CORRESPONDENT BANKS. BANKS CONTROBUTES TOWARDS GDP AND EMLOYS SOME 5,000 BAHAMIAN WORKERS.
RISKING BANK JOBS IS TERRIBLE
sheeprunner12 6 years, 5 months ago
The webshop/bank boundaries are blurred ......... the Central Bank and MOF are to blame.
Porcupine 6 years, 5 months ago
The answer to your question, "What do we as a society expect these children to do after being out of school two, three, four and five years and unable to find a job?" is telling. That we as a country, after enough years, leaders, conventions, and elections still are wondering why there are no jobs is exactly the point. How did we get to this point in time with no concrete plan other than depending on those with questionable morals, ethics, and yes, legality to save our nation and to provide for our children? Think about this JohnDoe. Is this where an educated, thinking, Christian society finds itself in 2017? The most important thing a government can do is to provide the atmosphere for its' citizens to be creative, innovative and hard working. Providing some jobs is important. However, when it is common to hear, "gimme a job", be assured we have failed.
We have failed to instill the spirit of hope and progress in our people. We expect a job to be handed to us. For god's sake, can't we start there in the discourse and recognize that this alone is a failure of our society. This, is why education is so important. This is why any thinking person who has the means to do so will flee this country very soon. It is not just because there are no DECENT jobs. It is because as a society we have made it so difficult for those who have the ambition to start a business that they just give up. Don't take my word for it. Read the World Bank's Ease of Doing Business report, year after year. Ask anyone who is trying to run a legitimate business in The Bahamas. The web shop owners, morally and ethically compromised as they are, are now in control of The Bahamas. Let me say that again. The web shop owners, morally and ethically compromised as they are, are now in control of The Bahamas. The jobs they provide to Bahamians produce nothing of value for our country. NOTHING of VALUE. If you have an inkling of economic understanding, project nothing of value into the future and see what you get. On our present course, we are on a dead end road. Again, the consequences of a D- educational system. No surprises. Just sadness. And, even if we all decided today that we will "fix" everything that is wrong, it still won't happen in our lifetimes. Sobering, eh? This is where we are at, in 2017.
baldbeardedbahamian 6 years, 5 months ago
in England in the 18th century major cities were as full of gin shops selling cheap gin as Nassau today is full of "web shops" aka unlicensed gambling dens. So most all the city dwellers were drunk most of the time, literally from cradle to (early) grave. The English government only got a handle on the problem by restricting, licensing, and regulating the gin houses which metamorphosed into the modern day pub with restricted opening hours. The Bahamas government must do the same to protect that large segment of the population who do not understand the principles of simple mathematics and think they can actually win some money playing numbers or spinning. Cashing a pay check in a numbers house is the worst idea I've heard since Perry put Shameless in charge of the hurricane relief money.
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