Finance Minister advises Barbadians to invest responsibly Loop Barbados

Black Immigrant Daily News

Barbadians are being urged to be financially astute when investing in financial and investment schemes.

He made the warning call during his introductory remarks in the House of Assembly on Tuesday, July 20 while speaking on the Financial Service Commission (Amendment) Bill, 2022.

Straughn warned individuals against being “fast and loose with their money” in order to make a quick buck.

“I can only caution people sir to think carefully, very very carefully about where you choose to put the little change that you might have extra to be able to deploy for the best uses.

“We want to encourage investment but we want to encourage investment that is responsible, both domestically, regionally and even internationally but we need to do it in a way that is as seamless as possible,” the Minister in the Ministry of Finance stated from Parliament.

While acknowledging the growing interest in investment opportunities such as cryptocurrency, Straughn stated that the Financial Services Commission was in the process of upgrading its structure to facilitate emerging digital currencies. He reminded being to be cautious and vigilant referencing the CLICO debacle that resulted in millions lost.

“The purpose of regulation sir, and having a regulatory environment, is to be able to protect people, but with these cryptocurrencies and the exchanges that we have seen multiplied and gotten quite popular – particularly amongst the young people, one of the critical things about these exchanges is that there is a lack of regulation surrounding these entities. Nobody can say definitively what it is they are putting the money into, and therefore, to the extent that any regulator cannot with any reason indicate what is the purpose but the mechanism through which these so-called investments are growing – it becomes pretty much a problem.”

“We must ensure that people are not taken advantage of in this country, particularly Sir when it comes to matters that they don’t quite fully understand or where the technology is moving so quickly that from a regulatory perspective,” he maintained.

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