I am moved to give my views on the current banking situation in Anguilla, especially as many persons seemingly want to be wrong and still remain strong in their wrong. I will begin by saying that every effect has a cause and that the causes, if not treated, will result in irreparable consequences.
The issues surrounding the National Bank of Anguilla and the Eastern Caribbean Central Bank may have stemmed from different attitudes that the bank’s officers were not aware of when the loans were being granted to borrowers. I say this to simply say that we are all not of the same mind. Some of us have good intentions in that we borrow with every intention to pay back. However, because of circumstances beyond our control, we may never get to honour our debt. By contrast, there are those of us who borrow with the intention not to pay back anything at all. Whatever the case, we must be reminded of God’s instructions in Romans 13: 8 that we should “Owe no man anything . . .”
I therefore ask this question of the borrowers of large sums of money from both NBA and the CCB, who I have come to understand vehemently oppose the solution to the big problem which they have helped to create. They are in the forefront of the campaign against the proposed Banking Act and the Assets Management Corporation. To you, I ask: Would you like someone to borrow from you and not pay you back? At what time will you accept responsibility for helping to plunge the banks into the present predicament that they are in?
May I remind you of Psalm 37: 21: “The wicked borrows and payeth not again . . .” So those of you who have borrowed money from the banks and have no intention of paying back, I will ask you another question: “Do you want to be numbered among the wicked?
If not, then pay the money back!
CONCERNED ANGUILLIAN
