Eastern Caribbean Central Bank 2024-2025 Annual Report

EASTERN CARIBBEAN CENTRAL BANK ANNUAL REPORT 2024 - 2025

Organisational Effectiveness and Development

and Saint Lucia to enable them to effectively meet their objectives, while safeguarding the Bank’s assets. The specific objectives were as follows: 1. Verify the stock of currency held at the agent banks and the Commemorative Coins held in the Agency Office vaults against the records at Headquarters; 2. Confirmthe existence of theBank’s inventory (fixed assets) at the Agency Offices against the records in SAP as well as the security and functionality of these assets; 3. Consider the efficiency and effectiveness of the services performed on behalf of the Research, Statistics and Data Analytics, Human Resource, Financial Sector Supervision and the Corporate Relations Departments; 4. Assess the adequacy and effectiveness of the internal operational controls including the risk of fraud and other significant weaknesses at the Agency Offices; and 5. Assess operational capacity and vulnerabilities within the Information Technology (IT) infrastructure at the Agency Offices that may impact internal controls. Risk Management Risk management is the process of identifying, assessing, mitigating and controlling risks to the Bank. The ECCB’s approach to risk management is based on the ‘plan, do, check and act’ cycle (PDCA). The Bank’s risk strategy is based on a combination of the International Organisation for Standardisations (ISO) 31000 Risk Management Standard and the Committee of the Sponsoring

Organisations of the Treadway Commission’s (COSO) Framework, and is consistent with the Bank’s Enterprise Risk Management (ERM) Policy Framework. TheECCB’s risk appetitedescribes the extent towhich we are accepting risks in the process of realising our strategic objectives. Considering the public impact of our services, the Bank follows a prudent approach with a low to moderate risk appetite. The Board of Directors has overall responsibility to ensure that appropriate risk management and internal control systems, designed to identify, manage and mitigate risks which may affect the achievement of the Bank’s objectives, are in place. The Board of Directors also ensures an appropriate risk appetite is approved and considers how the Bank’s longer term viability may be threatened by the realisation of one or more of these risks. The BARC provides structured and systematic oversight of the Bank’s risk management and internal control systems. The BARC reviewed and monitored the effectiveness of the Bank’s risk management and internal control systems throughout the year. The Bank is prepared to make certain financial and operational decisions in pursuit of strategic objectives, accepting the risk that the anticipated benefits from these decisions may not always be fully realised. Our acceptance of risk is subject to ensuring that potential benefits and risks are fully understood and appropriate measures to mitigate those risks are established. Each of the Bank’s principal risks is assigned a management owner who is responsible for ensuring adequate mitigating actions are in place to reduce risks within the agreed appetite.

58