09/28/2026
THE MONEY IS THERE. SO WHY CAN’T CARIBBEAN PEOPLE ACCESS IT?
There is money in the Caribbean banking system. There are entrepreneurs with ideas. There are small businesses desperate to expand. There are families trying to build homes and people trying to create something for themselves.
Yet far too often, the two cannot meet.
That is the problem.
I join Prime Minister Gaston Browne in calling for commercial banks across our region to become more accommodating, more responsive, and more willing to finance productive economic activity.
This is not about asking banks to throw money through the window. It is not about reckless lending, political interference in lending decisions, or abandoning sound banking principles.
It is about asking a simple question: What good is a highly liquid banking system if capital is not sufficiently reaching the people and businesses capable of putting it to productive use?
The numbers put the issue into perspective. There are roughly EC$28 billion in deposits within the ECCU banking system. Of course, deposits are not the same as money freely available for lending, and banks have obligations to depositors, regulators, and shareholders.
But the scale of those deposits demonstrates something important: this region is not devoid of capital.
The challenge is getting more responsible capital moving through our economies.
The ECCB itself has described the commercial banking sector as having ample liquidity. Its mandate goes beyond monetary stability and includes promoting credit and financial conditions conducive to the balanced growth and development of ECCU economies.
That is why this conversation matters.
An economy cannot be built by government alone.
Governments must build roads, improve ports, strengthen education, invest in healthcare, create sensible legislation, maintain fiscal stability and establish an environment in which businesses can prosper.
But banks and other financial institutions are also part of the economic-development machinery.
Banks cannot merely be warehouses for Caribbean money. They must be partners in creating Caribbean prosperity.
Across our islands, there are small-business owners who need $10,000, $20,000 or $50,000 to purchase equipment, renovate a building, increase inventory, employ another person or take a promising business to the next level.
Yet some entrepreneurs encounter requirements so burdensome that borrowing almost defeats the purpose of borrowing.
If someone needs $10,000 to develop a viable business but effectively has to demonstrate that he or she already possesses $10,000 or comparable security before receiving assistance, we should at least be prepared to examine whether the system is working as well as it should.
If everybody already had the money, everybody would not need the bank.
Of course there must be standards.
Of course borrowers must demonstrate their ability to repay.
Of course banks must manage risk.
And yes, banks have responsibilities to their shareholders.
But responsible lending and economic development are not opposing ideas.
The answer cannot simply be “lend to everyone.” The answer must be lend smarter.
That means examining credit-guarantee programs, collateral requirements, cash-flow-based lending, financing specifically designed for small and medium-sized enterprises, first-time homeowner programs, and other mechanisms capable of opening doors without compromising financial stability.
It also means governments have a role.
Our governments cannot continuously tell citizens, “Become entrepreneurs. Start businesses. Create jobs. Build wealth,” while ignoring the financial barriers those same citizens encounter when they attempt to do exactly that.
And the Eastern Caribbean Central Bank must continue to use its considerable influence to push this conversation further.
Its own 2026–2031 strategy speaks about creating pathways for citizens and businesses to build wealth through entrepreneurship, investment and asset ownership.
Those words must increasingly translate into opportunity throughout the financial system.
Because money must move.
When capital reaches a responsible entrepreneur, a business can expand.
When that business expands, someone can be employed.
That employee takes home a salary.
That salary supports a household.
That household spends money at another business.
Businesses pay taxes.
Governments receive revenue.
And governments reinvest that revenue into the country.
That is how economies move. That is how wealth circulates. That is how nations grow.
The ECCU cannot achieve the scale of economic transformation we continually speak about if too many capable people remain spectators because they cannot access capital.
We cannot preach entrepreneurship and make financing entrepreneurship unnecessarily difficult.
We cannot encourage young people to become business owners and then design a financial environment that works overwhelmingly in favor of those who have already accumulated substantial assets.
We cannot tell small businesses they are the backbone of our economies and then leave them starving for the financial oxygen necessary to grow.
Something has to change.
Governments, commercial banks, credit unions, development banks and the ECCB must come together and examine how we can responsibly get more capital into productive sectors of our economies.
Not reckless lending.
Not political lending.
Not free money.
Responsible access to capital.
Give the fisherman the opportunity to expand his operation.
Give the farmer an opportunity to modernise.
Give the young entrepreneur with a credible plan an opportunity to prove herself.
Give the established small business the opportunity to become a medium-sized business.
Give Caribbean people a fair opportunity to own homes, build assets and create generational wealth.
Because the greatest resource in the Caribbean is not sitting inside a bank vault.
It is our people.
Their ideas.
Their ambition.
Their creativity.
Their willingness to work.
Their willingness to take risks and build something for themselves and their families.
The financial system should help unleash that potential, not unnecessarily stand between our people and opportunity.
Our banks are indispensable to the stability of the Caribbean, and strong banks are in everyone’s interest. But strong banks and strong communities must go together.
Because ultimately, banks cannot sustainably prosper in economies where the people and businesses around them are unable to prosper.
The money is there.
The ideas are there.
The entrepreneurs are there.
The ambition is there.
Now we must build a financial system capable of bringing them together.
— Mervin Hanley
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