The Financial Services Commission in Anguilla, which performs supervisory and regulatory functions relating to licensed companies operating on the island, has now become a larger body. It recently moved into its new spacious premises on the top floor of Malliouhana Insurance Company in The Valley, has an increased staff and a newly-appointed Director in the person of Mr. Keith Bell.
The Commission previously functioned at The Secretariat compound where it shared office space with the Financial Services Department and Companies Registry. Over the last eight months the Interim Director was Mr. Richard Hands, an experienced commercial banker and bank supervisor in theUK. He previously served as an independent consultant for the World Bank and the IMF.
Mr. Hands, was thanked for his services to Anguilla on Friday, July 20, at a farewell dinner at DaVida Restaurant at Crocus Bay.
“The Commission was set up as a separate body in 2004 from the Financial Services Department and the Company’s Registry, but it remained in the same building,” Mr. Hands told The Anguillian in commenting on the FSC’s new office accommodation. “The intention always was to achieve that total separation from the functions of the Financial Services Department…One of the things that I have been able to do while in Anguilla, was to oversee the move of the Financial Services Commission to this new premises.
“These premises are part of the commitment that the FSC members made – that they would establish an independent and properly-resourced and functioning supervisory body. I think we are very fortunate to have this building. The conditions under which the staff worked in the old building were not conducive to efficiency. Everybody worked very hard, but we had four regulators in a very tiny room, all working together.”
Mr. Hands went on: “The other thing that has begun to happen is the commitment of the Commission to hire additional staff to meet the demands that are increasingly going to be placed upon us to achieve the requirements of supervision. We have to keep up to the standards set, to a large extent, by the outside world. We have to be as professional and well-resourced as our competitor jurisdictions.”
Mr. Hands was pleased that during his interim tenure of office in Anguilla, he was able to see the further development of the Commission, the move to its new premises, assist in recruiting the newly-appointed Director, Mr. Keith Bell, and introducing him to key persons in the financial services industry.“I think we have had a smooth transition,” he added. “I am happy that we managed to get Mr. Bell to come on board because he also carries a lot of international experience which is very valuable to the Anguilla jurisdiction going forward.”
Mr. Bell was appointed Director of the Financial Services Commission with effect from July 16, 2012. He is a Certified Management Accountant (Ontario,Canada) and holds a Bachelor of Arts (Honours) degree from the University of Strathclyde and a Master of Business Administration degree from the University of Toronto. He worked 20 yers as a deposit taking institutions supervisor with the Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions inCanada, as well as served on 25 IMF/World Bank missions to assess the systems of banking supervision in various regional and international countries. Mr. Bell also served as a consultant to financial services regulators in the British Virgin Islands and Jamaica, and has worked on longer-term assignments with the Central Bank in the Bahamas and the Bank of Jamaica.
Mr. Bell’s contract in Anguilla is for two years. “I hope to carry forward the good work which my predecessor [Richard Hands] has done…,” he commented, adding that he was pleased to be of service to the island and its people.
Meanwhile, Mr. Hands has returned to the UK on retirement.
