Jwala: I’m not to blame for US$ woes

He made the comments while delivering the feature address on Saturday night at the Institute of Banking and Finance of Trinidad and Tobago Annual Graduation Ceremony held at the Hyatt Regency Trinidad, Port-of-Spain.

“I’m Jwala Rambarran Governor of the Central Bank of Trinidad and Tobago and if you believe the headlines the person to blame for why you can’t get US$100 for your vacation. But don’t believe headlines,” he told the audience.

“I’ll get to the exciting stuff first, I did not bring any US money with me tonight,” he quipped.

Finance Minister Larry Howai in a recent statement also noted that Rambarran was not to blame for the lack of availability of US currency but noted that “The Central Bank had made some changes to the system, and to some extent some of those changes may have impacted and resulted in the situation in which we found ourselves”.

At the graduation, Rambarran also spoke on the need to draw on a bigger talent for the growing financial services industry.

He noted that they are seeing greater demand for specialised financial skills in anti-money laundering, actuarial science, risk management and wealth management. Rambarran said that highly skilled professionals from the Trinidad diaspora community is one area of untapped talent and, if this includes those with historical links to this country, would be at least 360,000 people consisting of highly skilled workers, college and university graduates, management and other professionals.