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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