Saint Philip,
Antigua and Barbuda, July 5, 2012
—IFC, a member of the World Bank Group, is training financial institutions in the Organization for Eastern Caribbean States (OECS) to strengthen risk management and corporate governance practices, essential to recovering from the recent economic crisis.
In collaboration with the Eastern Caribbean Central Bank, IFC is hosting the training program in Saint Philip parish on Antigua and Barbuda today and tomorrow. The training, which is supported by the Canadian International Development Agency, is bringing together thirteen financial institutions from six of the OECS member states and is focusing on risk management as an enabler of long-term growth and profitability.
The global financial crisis continues to severely impact Caribbean economies, increasing the vulnerability of financial institutions in the region. IFC’s training is helping these institutions develop the means to identify, assess, mitigate, and monitor such risks in a systematic and integrated manner. Such improved risk management practices will enable financial institutions to grow more sustainably and expand lending to small and medium-size enterprises (SMEs), key drivers of economic growth and job creation.
“Our work to improve risk management and corporate governance practices is aligned with IFC’s strategy in the region to support access to finance for under-served segments of the population,” said Ghada Teima, Access to Finance Manager, IFC Advisory Services in Latin America and the Caribbean. “We have been working with our partners to build institutional capacity and resilience to the financial crisis by mitigating risks and managing healthy growth."
The training is part of a program developed by the Global Risk Management and Corporate Governance department within IFC’s Advisory Services to help financial institutions in emerging markets improve their internal policies and procedures related to risk and governance. Since early 2009, 118 risk management trainings and conferences have been held in 36 countries across all IFC regions.
The program offers instruction in a comprehensive set of risk management practice areas, including risk governance, market risk, liquidity risk, credit risk, operational risk, asset liability management, and capital adequacy. This draws on lessons from the 2008 global financial crisis that all of these risk areas are interconnected, and one type of risk can transform into another – critical insights IFC’s Advisory Services hopes to impart on financial institutions in the Caribbean and elsewhere.
About IFC
IFC, a member of the World Bank Group, is the largest global development institution focused exclusively on the private sector. We help developing countries achieve sustainable growth by financing investment, providing advisory services to businesses and governments, and mobilizing capital in the international financial markets. In fiscal 2011, amid economic uncertainty across the globe, we helped our clients create jobs, strengthen environmental performance, and contribute to their local communities—all while driving our investments to an all-time high of nearly $19 billion. For more information, visit
www.ifc.org
.
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