MOU signed by FTC and FSC

The Fair Trading Commission (FTC) and the Financial Services Commission (FSC), have signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU), intended to speed up the decision-making process – especially with respect to mergers, acquisitions and competition cases and encourage greater cooperation between the two entities.

The signing was performed yesterday by the FTC’s Chief Executive Officer, Sandra Sealy and the FSC’s Chief Executive Officer Kester Guy, in a brief ceremony held at the FTC’s Green Hill office. Addressing the media, Sealy said that the MOU, which has been in the works since June this year, should help to bring about greater efficiencies for both entities.

“We have found that when we have to do our merger cases and our competition cases, many times we do have to contact the Financial Services Commission… Outside of the Financial Services Commission there are other entities within Barbados and we started talking about signing Memorandums of Understanding,” she said.

Sealy disclosed that the FTC has also been having discussions about cooperation with the Royal Barbados Police Force, as they look more at enforcement of the various pieces of legislation under their purview and in dealing with some of the merger cases that come before them. Sealy said that given that they may have to take some of those matters to court, it is important that they ensure that their processes are sound so that they are not challenged on their position. Additionally, she said they are seeking to establish relationships and cooperation with their regional counterparts.

To date, the FTC’s CEO revealed that they have been engaging their counterparts in both Trinidad and Guyana.

“Setting memorandums of understanding and establishing relationships with our stakeholders, that was one of our goals in our strategic plan for this year and we are very pleased to know we are meeting it and we hope that by the end of March that they would have established some more memorandums of understanding with other entities,” she stated.

Adding to her comments, the FSC’s head highlighted the importance of the timely sharing of information between the two entities and described the MOU as a step in the right direction.

“As far as we have activities that affect each other, or where there is overlap, or where there is reliance on each other for decision-making – this code, this memorandum that establishes the working relationship and the provisions for sharing information, allows us to do that in a very seamless way that would redound to the benefit of a good experience for all the stakeholders that we engage with. And we certainly support it and we were quick to respond to the request to facilitate that,” Guy affirmed.

He made the remarks while zeroing in on the role the MOU can play in respect of mergers and acquisitions. He explained that while mergers and acquisitions are a normal part of business, concerns can arise from both the FSC and the FTC. He explained that from the FSC’s standpoint, they are concerned primarily about two things – whether there are issues of consumer protection or if there are any issues of systemic
risks that they need to act on.

Meanwhile, the FTC’s Director of Fair Competition, Antonio Thompson, said their concern would be the concentration levels within the market.

“That is why as Mr. Guy said that it is very important that we work together. At the end of the day, we want to ensure that the markets continue to provide some measure of options for consumers and we still want to make sure that there is as much competition in the market as possible… At the end of the day, the goal is to ensure that consumers are well served and we know that once that happens, we can keep the economy ticking over,” he said. (JRT)