In Barbados, starting last year the five largest credit unions accounting for 80 percent of total credit union assets are supervised jointly by the Central Bank and the Registrar of Credit Unions. Recently, the Trinidad and Tobago Government announced the intention to amend the Financial Institutions Act to bring large credit unions under the regulatory control of the Central Bank.
The rationale was that that these institutions were essentially conducting business of a “banking nature” and should be regulated as banks, while the other credit unions involved in more traditional activities would continue to be supervised elsewhere. Having examined the FIA, it may indeed be more complicated than originally envisaged to adapt this piece of legislation to the credit unions.