Following the official public sector launch of Anguilla’s National Risk Assessment exercise to work towards protecting the reputation of the island’s financial services industry, and to achieve a good rating in 2020, there has been another closely-related event.
That was when some 70 private sector representatives from banks and insurance companies, and other financial agencies, met in a workshop at the Teachers’ Resource Centre on Tuesday, this week, February 21. The half-day workshop on “Understanding Compliance Management” was held by the University of the West Indies Open Campus in Anguilla in collaboration with the Anguilla Financial Services Commission, the Anguilla Commercial Registry and the Anguilla Compliance Association.
Dr. Phyllis Fleming-Banks, Manager of the UWI Open Campus in the British Overseas Territories in the Caribbean, set the tone for the workshop in her opening address.
“The workshop emanated from our experience as an education/non-profit organisation,” she stated. “The aim is simply to create an awareness of how compliance affects us all – whether we are in the financial related services industry, or whether you are a church group trying to raise funds for a worthy cause. The workshop will also examine this issue of compliance management and all that goes along with that; as well as the reasoning/relevancy for the regulation of the financial sector in a changing global environment; and how to go about establishing effective compliance programmes.”
Dr. Phyllis Fleming-Banks continued: “The workshop is the first in a series of compliance-related initiatives being presented as part of the Continuing and Professional Education programme at the UWI Open Campus Anguilla. Our aim is to continue providing advanced Risk, Governance and Compliance courses for those of you in the financial services industry – and the general public seeking professional development in these fields.”
She added: “Given the timing of this workshop, in light of the front page of last week’s Anguillian newspaper, we expect a very interactive session.”
The presenters were: the Deputy Director of the Anguilla Financial Services Commission, Mrs. Tina Bryan-Bannister; the Deputy Registrar of the Anguilla Commercial Registry, Mr. Lonnie Hobson; and the Education and Training Officer of the Anguilla Compliance Association, Mrs. Fiona Curtis.
Mr. John Lawrence, Chairman of the Anguilla Compliance Association, commended the UWI Open Campus in Anguilla, in particular, for arranging the workshop given the importance of the island’s financial services – its relevance to the economy and future of Anguilla, and the need for compliance.
Among the attendees were a number of Sixth Form business students from the Albena Lake-Hodge Comprehensive School. They were accompanied by Ms. Avenella Griffith, Head of the school’s Business Administration Department. 
