ECCB 2025-2026 Annual Report

EASTERN CARIBBEAN CENTRAL BANK ANNUAL REPORT 2025 - 2026

Governor’s Foreword

While preserving stability remains our foremost responsibility, stability alone is not enough. To secure lasting prosperity, the region must also pursue transformation. This conviction gave rise to the ECCB’s Strategic Plan 2026–2031, The Big Push: Collective Action for Shared Prosperity in the ECCU. The plan seeks to answer a simple but profound question: What would it take to double the size of the ECCU economy over the next decade?

continued to demonstrate resilience, supported by strong capital adequacy, ample liquidity, and improving asset quality. During the year, the Bank deepened its efforts to expand financial inclusion. A major milestone was the launch of the ECCU First Step Savings Account across all eight member countries, providing citizens with a simple and affordable entry point into the formal financial system. At the same time, efforts to strengthen the region’s credit infrastructure advanced, with EveryData ECCU beginning to receive data from participating institutions. This important milestone paves the way for stronger credit underwriting, improved access to finance, and greater private-sector expansion. The ECCB also advanced several important reforms designed to strengthen the financial system and broaden economic opportunity. Progress continued on the establishment of the Office of Financial Conduct and the Eastern Caribbean Financial Standards Board, which will enhance the regulation and supervision of non-bank financial institutions, including credit unions and insurers. While preserving stability remains our foremost responsibility, stability alone is not enough. To secure lasting prosperity, the region must also

pursue transformation.

This conviction gave rise to the ECCB’s Strategic Plan 2026–2031, The Big Push: Collective Action for Shared Prosperity in the ECCU. The plan seeks to answer a simple but profound question: What would it take to double the size of the ECCU economy over the next decade? The Big Push is about far more than expanding GDP. It is a framework for advancing financial stability, fiscal sustainability, economic diversification, resilience, innovation, competitiveness, and shared prosperity. Its ultimate aim is to transform our eight small island economies into resilient, inclusive, and sustainable societies where our people can thrive and realise their full potential. As we navigate an era marked by volatility, uncertainty, complexity, ambiguity, and anxiety, the region must reimagine its development model. While tourism will remain a critical pillar, we must diversify both within and beyond tourism by harnessing opportunities in the digital, green, blue, and orange economies. Achieving this ambition will require new mindsets, stronger skillsets, bold policy choices, and coordinated investments. It will also require

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