ECCB 2015/2016 Annual Report

EASTERN CARIBBEAN CENTRAL BANK

2015. The objective of the workshop was to update officers on the changes to the toolkit. The World Bank DeMPA methodology provides a process by which countries can gauge the improvements in their debt management practices against international standards. With the release of the new Commonwealth Secretariat Debt Recording and Monitoring System (CS-DRMS) Version 2.0 in August 2014, there was a focus on CS-DRMS in-country training to assist countries with understanding the changes to the system and to facilitate the upgrade process in the 2015/2016 financial year. Hands-on training on the upgraded system was also conducted at the ECCB for new officers in the Debt Management Units (DMU). The CS-DRMS is the main debt software used by all the ECCU countries to record and monitor their debt obligations. One of the initiatives used to prepare new officers for debt management responsibilities in their countries was the introduction of an attachment programme. Grenada was the first country to benefit from the programme with a five-week attachment of Rhesa Findley from Grenada’s DMU to the CANEC-DMAS Unit of the ECCB in October 2015. The attachment allowed the officer to be immersed in some of the core debt management activities undertaken as part of the DMU’s operations. The Bank continued to utilise the available technology by facilitating not only in-country training and technical assistance but by providing the necessary capacity building through online programmes. During the year ECCU officers benefitted from online training from the United Nations Institute for Training and Research (UNITAR) on Basic Public Debt Management, Effective Public Debt Management and Negotiating

Financial Transactions. Courses were also completed with the Jamaica Stock Exchange E-Campus on Credit Risk Management: Loans and Bonds and Market Risk and Middle Office Management. Workshops on debt restructuring were also provided pro bono by debt experts from White Oak Advisory, which had been instrumental in recent sovereign debt restructuring in the Caribbean. The workshops focused on the technicalities of debt restructuring such as the tipping point from a debt sustainability perspective to the negotiations with the various creditor groups. Worshops on Capital Market Development and Investor Relations were also conducted, in collaboration with the IMF/Canada Debt Programme.

Debt Analyst, Ministry of Finance Grenada - Rhesa Findley (first from left), with Adviser, ECCB - John Venner and Economic Statistician, DMAS - Corrine Telfer-James.

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ECCB A nnual R eport 2015/2016