Barbados’ Central Bank Apologies Over Late Interest Payments

BRIDGETOWN, Barbados, January 6, 2019 (CMC) – The Central Bank of Barbados (CBB) says it anticipates being in a position to make all interest payments, by Friday, after experiencing what it termed “a delay” in making the payments that were due on December 31, last year.

“We apologise for the delay that persons have been experiencing in receiving their interest,” said Julia Weekes, Director of Banking and Investments at the CBB, without providing the amounts involved.

“As we mentioned previously, because of the new structure of government securities, we have had to change our computerised system, and we are still experiencing some challenges with implementation,” she added.

“As a result, where previously interest payments would have been made through an automated system, this set of payments has to be done, manually. Nevertheless, we anticipate that the payments will be made within a week,” she explained, assuring investors that the CBB is working, assiduously, with the external providers to iron out the systems-related difficulties.

Weekes said that, with the assumption of responsibility for investors, who previously held treasury bills and state-owned enterprises (SOE) debt, part of the delay for some bondholders is attributable to the absence of banking details for some of the persons, who were to receive interest payments at the end of last year.

“We will reach out to these persons so they can also be paid their interest,” Weekes promised.