The East­ern Caribbean Cen­tral Bank (EC­CB) says leg­is­la­tion re­gard­ing the es­tab­lish­ment of a cred­it bu­reau has been passed in all mem­ber coun­tries of the sub-re­gion­al Or­gan­i­sa­tion of East­ern Caribbean States (OECS).

The EC­CB, which serves as a cen­tral bank for the sub-re­gion­al group­ing, said that one of the main ob­jec­tives of in­tro­duc­ing a cred­it bu­reau in the re­gion is to make ac­cess­ing cred­it and fi­nance eas­i­er for the cit­i­zens and res­i­dents of the East­ern Caribbean Cur­ren­cy Union (EC­CU).

The EC­CU mem­ber coun­tries are An­guil­la, An­tigua and Bar­bu­da, Do­mini­ca, Grena­da, Montser­rat, St. Kitts and Nevis, St. Lu­cia and St. Vin­cent and the Grenadines.

Le­gal Of­fi­cer at the EC­CB, Roland Moore, said the cred­it re­port­ing leg­is­la­tion en­sures that there is a struc­tured frame­work for or­der to be es­tab­lished among the EC­CU coun­tries.

He said it al­so out­lines the roles and re­spon­si­bil­i­ties of the par­ties in­volved, in­clud­ing the cred­it bu­reau ser­vice provider, fi­nan­cial in­sti­tu­tions and con­sumers.

Ac­cord­ing to the leg­is­la­tion, the EC­CB is re­spon­si­ble for reg­u­lat­ing any cred­it bu­reau ser­vice provider in the EC­CU, which in this case is Every­Da­ta EC­CU Ltd.

Moore said that as a re­sult of the leg­is­la­tion, cit­i­zens and res­i­dents will soon be able to ac­cess cred­it in a time­li­er man­ner and cap­i­talise on the ben­e­fits of cred­it re­port­ing.

BAS­SETERRE, St. Kitts, Jun 26, CMC

CMC/af/ir/2024