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  • 1 year ago
An official of the Office of the Financial Services Ombudsman says There's a deep and pervasive mistrust of the financial institutions by ordinary citizens.

However, he says trust can be gained by measures such as people being more aware of the existence of that Office.

The official was speaking during the launch Survey was conducted by The Trinidad and Tobago Financial Centre - the TTTIFC - in conjunction with the European Union and the United Nations Capital Development Fund.

Juhel Browne reports.
Transcript
00:00There's a deep and pervasive mistrust of financial institutions by ordinary citizens.
00:05But if they know there's something called a financial services ombudsman that will provide
00:11them with redress, that they don't have to accept everything an institution tells them,
00:16it will, over time, build confidence in the financial system.
00:20Dominic Studdard, who spoke on behalf of the Office of the Financial Services Ombudsman
00:25during the launch of the National Financial Inclusion Survey report,
00:29addressed a key concern discovered by the central bank in its own surveys.
00:35The chairman of the Trinidad and Tobago International Financial Center, Richard Young,
00:39reflected concerns raised by the resident coordinator of the United Nations,
00:44Joanna Kazana, and the chief executive officer of the TTIFC, John Outridge,
00:50about why some people may not be eager about digital banking or even being in the formal
00:57financial sector.
00:58It's all about this digitalization, and of course, as mentioned by Joanna, and of course,
01:06John, in terms of the corruption, and we understand why people are hesitant,
01:11why they don't want to change it, but it will happen.
01:15The TTIFC's chairman also spoke about the micro, small, and medium enterprises, or MSMEs.
01:23MSMEs contribute at least 30% of GDP.
01:27And our survey, when we drilled down, they're the ones that are challenged.
01:32Some 70-something percent don't have a bank account.
01:35They co-mingle, and the bankers know that is very dangerous.
01:40And they have no means of collecting other than cash.
01:43He acknowledged other challenges MSMEs face, such as applying for loans.
01:49At the launch of the National Financial Inclusion Survey report,
01:52TV6 News spoke with Catherine Nurse, the CEO of Immortal Beauty,
01:57which creates products made in Trinidad and Tobago.
02:00One of my main focuses is being able to access banking products easier through processes that
02:06are less onerous, that have less paperwork, and so I heard a lot about that today,
02:10and I'm excited and hopeful to see what changes are coming for us in that area.
02:14Jonathan Clayton is the co-founder and CEO of Odeliver, a tech-enabled delivery service.
02:20I think we go back to that word trust.
02:23We are trying our best to convert customers to pay for their items online.
02:29We've even developed a payment link that was built proprietary internally, that on delivery,
02:36we can offer you a link that you can now use your existing debit card or credit card
02:40and facilitate the payment there.
02:41So we are trying in our own way to get customers to convert
02:45to paying from cash to paying more digitally.
02:47Finance Minister Colm Imbert said the National Financial Inclusion Survey report
02:52had questions tailored explicitly for Trinidad and Tobago.
02:56You may have heard Mr. Young, in his usual way, make a remark about, I was a little cautious.
03:04I was, because when I looked at the survey, it was going deep into ethnicity, religion,
03:11geographic location, a little concerned, but eventually I said, okay, go ahead.
03:17And it went through with no trouble at all.
03:20In line with the OECD framework, a demographic distribution of 2,000 nationals
03:27over 15 years of age participate in the exercise.
03:31The finance minister said that according to the survey's results,
03:3563% of all transactions in Trinidad and Tobago are conducted in cash.
03:40Jewell Brown, TV6 News.
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