 and welcome to another edition of Let's Get Down to Business. We are commemorating the 21st anniversary of the Eastern Caribbean Securities Market. And on this edition of the program, I have a distinguished panel who are going to tell us a lot more about the Eastern Caribbean Securities Market and what it means to be 21 years old. So let me welcome Mr. Trevor Blake, who is the managing director of the East Caribbean Securities Exchange. I'll also welcome Mr. Lucia Fissal, who is the CEO of the Eastern Caribbean Securities Regulatory Commission. Let me welcome two brokers in this whole operation. Mrs. Alana Joseph from the Grenada Corporative Bank Limited. She is the executive manager, wealth management, and financial services, and Mrs. Nolan Gabriel Boy. And she is the head of regional operations for First Citizens Investment. Welcome, everybody. Thank you. Thank you, Tony. Good. So let's kick off. We're talking about the Eastern Caribbean Securities Market. So I want to go straight to Trevor and ask him to explain to the viewers what is the Eastern Caribbean Securities Market. All right. Thank you. Thank you, Tony. The Eastern Caribbean Securities Market is a regional market that was created in 2001 to provide a marketplace where securities could be bought and sold across the Eastern Caribbean seamlessly. It is a regional market governed on the regional body of legislation and regulated by the Eastern Caribbean Securities Regulatory Committee. But Gail will speak a bit about that. Mrs. Fissal will speak a bit about that. The market is a marketplace, as I said, for the buying and selling of financial assets. The things that are traded on the market would be securities, stocks and bonds, debt instruments, the government bonds, corporate bonds, corporate people. Of course, when we say stocks, we are talking about shares, equities, shares in public companies. So those are the things that are traded in the market. The market is basically structured around a number of key institutions, the Eastern Caribbean Securities Exchange, which I have the pleasure of heading, the Central Securities Depository. We have, as well, the regulator that sits at the apex, the Eastern Caribbean Securities Regulatory Commission. And then we have the intermediaries, the broker dealers, which Nolan and Alana represent. So before we talk to the brokers, I want to get a bit more of a sense of the need for regulation and the role there of the regulatory commission. So maybe Alusia can come in here and give me some clarity on that. Yes, thank you. Thank you, Tony. The Eastern Caribbean Securities Regulatory Commission was established in 2001 at the start of the market. At the time, the governments decided or agreed to come together and establish the commission. The role of the commission really is to promote the activity on the market by ensuring that whatever persons who are involved in the market are adequately qualified and licensed to operate. So we license broker dealers and investment advisors. And we also license the Eastern Caribbean Securities Exchange as the securities exchange for the Eastern Caribbean Securities Market. The role of regulation really is to ensure that there's fairness in the activities that are undertaken in the market so that persons can feel confident when they invest that their investments are being, well, the activities or the business on the market is being conducted in a fair, efficient, and sound manner. And you mentioned the word fair. So how much is an investor protected by law? I mean, because I don't know where regulations overlap legislation. So how much? Because we're part of the currency union, I'm assuming any legislation you talk about is harmonized across the region. So maybe just explain a bit more about that. Right. Right. So the market, as Mr. Blake would have indicated, is governed by uniform or harmonized legislation, which has been enacted in each of the member countries. So each parliament in each of the member countries would have enacted the Securities Act and the regulation supporting the Securities Act. Within the Securities Act, there are provisions that gives the commission enforcement powers. So for example, if there is an actor or someone is conducting securities business that has not been authorized under the act, the commission has the authority to step in and perhaps issue, for example, a cease and desist order to have that person comply with the regulations or the legislation and the law. There are also provisions that would give investors recourse if they feel that if they have sustained any losses, there are provisions in the Securities Act that would provide some level of recourse for investors. So in other words, we can't have any shoddy or shady companies trading on the stock market and think that they can get over it like some fantastic pyramid scheme. Yes, that's great. I want to talk to the brokers a bit about actual market trading. How does one trade on the market? Maybe I could start with Alana and then Nolan. You can come in. OK, well, it's pretty simple to start trading on the market. The role of the broker, what the broker acts as the intermediary in the operations on the Eastern Caribbean securities market. So any investor interested in trading on the market must do so through a license broker. Or yeah, a license broker. As I said, it's pretty simple and straightforward. You first establish a relationship with a license broker. And that really entails a customer due diligence process. What broker, of course, confirms and verifies the identity of the investor. And then you, of course, have a conversation in terms of the broker gets a chance to understand the investment goals and objectives of the investor, of course, having a conversation about risk and risk management. And then we take it from there in terms of looking at what are the opportunities on the market that would meet your needs. And when those opportunities arise, the timing and in capitalizing on those opportunities. So Nolan, you're from First Citizens. And so First Citizens, like the Grenada Cooperative Bank, is a registered broker with the market. Do you actively advertise the equities that are tradable? Or as an investor, must I come to you and seek that sort of advice knowledge? How does it work? We do have our regulates on the panel. And that's wonderful for this question that you have asked, Tony. Because securities trading is not a broad-based type of approach, because it tends to be more sophisticated. And our market regulation has to ensure that clients are understanding exactly what they're engaging in. So as far as advertising, any advertisements that are done in the region has to be vetted by our regulator before they're rolled out to the marketplace. Now, when Alana give her response to your earlier question, she talks about the risk tolerance, establishing the risk tolerance of that investor. Because investment is very unique. It's not a one-size-fits-all. A key component of the broker-client relationship is understanding the risk appetite of that client and ensuring that you're only marketing and those products that match that client's risk appetite. So it really is more of a consultative process versus a very broad-based, hey, we're offering shares at this time. Having said that, we do have a database of existing investors, as well as investors who have indicated that they would like to invest in the future. And from that, we would actually reach out to them and have discussions about upcoming issues. And Nolan and Alana, and I suppose the people who are with the exchange, are there threshold amounts? In other words, could I come in and buy one share of a company? That's trading at $9. Surely that won't make sense. So who sets those limits, the upper and lower limits? Who sets them? I don't know if this is a question for the brokers or for Trevor. I think we can take it as the broker. There are an issue and the limits or what we call it allocation limits or buckets for any specific issue is going to be basically set by the issuer at the time that that issue is done. So for example, if it's a primary market issue or it's the first time coming to market, it may be stated in the prospectus, which is the government document for any of the issues that are coming to market, indicated that there are minimum quantities of X. I really have not seen maximum quantities. The only time I can think of where I see necessarily there's a max set on quantities if there's a kind of in terms of the class of investor that can invest. And by that I mean, if you have an issue that's coming to market and it is allocated say 20% to the, let's take the BOSVG example that happened in St. Vincent, you know 20% for the NIS X amount to the public. So of course you're going to be capped by those those categories within the quantities allocated to those categories. But in terms of a capping by the individual investor, there's nothing else specific that stated there's not necessarily a max. So is it the case that competitive laws maybe, so if the region was governed by a competitive commission, but maybe that's a sort of overlap, but may exist if there was no limits necessarily set by the issuer, right? Should Tony Reds would be able to buy 95% of a particular company that is trading, which then gives me a de facto monopoly in the market in which I exist. So I guess that's not your business. It's a competitive competition commission. And there is a timing issue. So as broken dealers, we are required and we're bummed by the rules and regulations of the market. And a big part of that is time date stamping of orders received. And so really it is up to the investors and when their orders are received and an order is considered received and completed when all documentation, clients onboarding KYC, all clients onboarding forms are completed, all IDs, all the diligence checks are done, but also when an order form as well as payment is received. If I may add to what Lauren has said, there are sometimes restrictions on the maximum that any investor could subscribe in a primary issue. So for example, if with an APO and a listing of a new security, within the prospectus of the offer documents, there could be a limitation placed to prevent any one person from becoming a large investor who would have control over the entity. We also have some listings in regulated areas. For example, some industries like banking, one or a group of connected parties can own more than say 5% of the equity in that company and there are restrictions in the market to allow for those things to happen. In terms of limits or the minimum amount you could buy, on the secondary market, one could come in and buy us 20 shares in a company. What is the secondary market? Because so we have to establish that. So there's primary market and the secondary market. So maybe it's a good juncture which you can explain what both of those primary and secondary market. Sure, the primary market is where a security is being brought to the market for the first time. So an issue, whether it be a corporate issue or government issue seeks to raise some money and brings security to sell on the market to gain the capital that's contributed from the sale of those securities. So an SEO company, a government seeking to raise capital sell securities in the primary market to gain the resources from that sale. And that would be a primary SEO. In the secondary market we are talking here of securities that are already listed, securities that are already held by existing investors and they're traded between those investors. And the market facilitates that particular type of trading. Absolutely, the market, most of the activity in the corporate, well in the equities would happen in the secondary market where we have companies that are already in existence and probably have been in existence for years that are listed on the market, and we call those seasoned issues. Those companies may not be seeking to raise additional capital, but they are listed to enable their shareholders to buy, to sell their securities and other investors are able to buy in that secondary market. Alana, I have a question for you. You're a broker, so you've sold me some equity in a particular company or concern that's trading on the market. And I now have these, can I use that as collateral anyway? Any, well we have to remember that the securities you put is on the market are technically assets, right? And of course these assets can be used as collateral for various arrangements and especially with financial institutions. Not only can they be used as assets, but the proceeds from the investments, so for instance your dividends in some instances from your equities, or even if you're talking about fixed income securities such as your debt instruments, your bonds and treasury bills and so forth. The returns that you get, the interest payments can also go towards your loan payments. Of course that depends on your arrangements and terms and conditions with your financial institutions, but because the, so to answer your question, yes, the instruments traded on the market can be used as collateral for debt and other arrangements, debt facilities and other arrangements. Here's another question I have about, comes about from something that you said in terms of gains or proceeds. So capital gains, which is what I'm hoping for when I make an investment. The tax on capital gains, is that something that's harmonized in the region or that varies from country to country? Capital gains tax. The short answer to that is it's harmonized because in every country the governments have agreed that for securities issued and listed on the ECSE, there'll be no tax on the gains from those investments. So there's no capital gains tax, there's no income tax on the dividends or the interest on those securities. So this is a measure I suppose to stimulate or incentivize people for using the market. Absolutely. Right, so having said all of that, let's talk about how active the securities market is. Yes, go ahead, you wanted to say something. You had asked a question about the minimum to start and I didn't want to omit the fact that the securities on the regional government securities market generally the minimum starts at $5,000. And I mean, I know you said if somebody wants to buy one share if that makes sense, but there are shares on the market as low as $1.30, $1.25. So I wouldn't call it barriers to entry because there are really no barriers. The market is quite open for anybody to really participate. So I just wanted to make that point. And one other thing I think when you asked about the role of the broker, I mentioned the investor side and I didn't mention the issuer side. So as a broker, we also represent the person's issuance securities on the market. So we would of course help them in structuring their arrangements, the offers on the market, the marketing side of it, bringing it to market, getting the traction in the market and the interest in the market as well. So we perform dual roles in terms of the investor side as well as the issuer side. How busy is the market, Trevor? Yeah, we're talking about something that may very well be niche and, you know, and I'm sure the brokers on the discussion want to see maybe a lot more activity. We all do. Why is there too much? No, no, no, we all do. In terms of, and we could look at it from both sides of the market and the primary market and then on the secondary market. On the primary markets, we are pretty very active. Every so often governments, and we have some five governments that actively issuance securities on the GSM. So the primary markets are quite busy every, a few times a month, the auctions of securities. So that is good. We are happy with the, of course, it could always be improved, but we are pretty happy with the primary market. Before you continue, keep your thoughts because we are using the term RGSM, which is the regional securities government market. And I suppose we need to explain to the viewers that you are divided for a platform for trailing government paper, if you want to call it that, and one for corporate entities. So maybe you just explain that a little bit and then you can continue with your point again. Sure, on the ECSM, we host two different markets at the regional government securities market, which is a market for governments to raise capital across the region. So in that market, only governments participate in the market as issuers. So they issue securities, whether it be treasury bills, bonds, treasury notes, the issuers securities on a regular basis on the regional government securities market. So that is a market for government securities. Then we have the Eastern Caribbean securities market, which is the market for the primary issue of corporate securities. Those would be securities issued by companies and not by governments. And it is the secondary market for all of the securities that are traded on the exchange. So for example, a government might issue a bond on the regional government securities market and then they list it on the ECSM or the Eastern Caribbean securities market, which is then treated between individuals, et cetera. So that is the distinction between the two markets. I understand that. So back to your point about the activity that you wanted to see increased. I didn't ask specifically how many companies that trade in the Mute choose to give me a sort of idea as to what's your value, what's your size, not in monetary terms, but in terms of companies trading. Sure. So we have, just to say about the listing, on the listing board, we have about 160 securities listed. The majority of that represents government debt securities. And those tend not to be traded very often. So typically the investors would buy them and essentially hold them to maturity. So those, well, there's some trading, but it's not significant. Then we have some corporate debt securities. Our major issue in that area is the Eastern Caribbean, is ECHMB capital. And they issue a number of corporate people, instruments. And those, again, are not traded very, very often. Their buyers tend to hold them to maturity. Then we have 14 equities listed. That is 14 companies from across the currency union listed. Again, our culture is one of a buy and hold strategy where persons buy those securities and hold them for either for the capital gains, the dividend to pass them on to their grandchildren, et cetera. But these again are not traded very actively. So secondary market trading is quite low. We, of course, would want to see that improve. We want to see people seeing the shares as a commodity to be bought and sold and not necessarily as a part of a company. I mean, you are invested, when you invest in shares in the capital of a company, you become a part owner of the company. But we need to make that shift to see that not as a share in a company, but a commodity that you should be... Right, so I guess the word is speculating. Is that the right term? You want to see people speculate more with what they hold as equity? Speculating has a particular connotation that I would want to encourage. So it's a correct name. Correct me. I invite you now to tell me what is speculation and what is the term used for the buy and sell it? The buy and sell is actively trading. So that's actively trading. Actively trading, as well. In Mac, there's some degree of speculation because you will buy a security because you think that security may increase in value and then you buy it, you hold it till you see the increase that you were looking for and then you sell it to unlock the value that you would have... Trevor, let me ask the brokers here on this point. Let me ask the brokers here on the discussion. Is speculation not a good thing for you as brokers or is it just a highly risky, volatile activity that you discourage? I want to get an understanding from your perspective. I think the way I would look at this, Tony, I would go back to risk appetite and the risk appetite of any individual investor. So an investor who does not have the risk tolerance for very risky assets, invested in risky assets, we can consider that speculative. I think our responsibility as brokers is to ensure that we are matching the instruments and the level of risk that those instruments carry with the type of investor and the type of investor will be determined by that investor's goals, it may be their age, their comfort level, what does their portfolio size look like, what their timeline for creation of wealth looks like. So I actually don't like the term speculation because it almost feels like an element of gambling and investing, for some people it can be, but it really should be looked at as a mechanism for the creation of wealth. Right. I understand that fully. I understand that fully. The companies that are listed, and we're talking about corporates now, we're not talking about governments, I went up on your website and I did some research and it seemed like to me that the share values of most of them over a period of time, constant, not shifting at all, what is that an indication of basically? How does that tell me what's happening in the market? Yeah, that reflects the low level of activity. A share price would move unless they are treating it. So the price is determined by what... How much people want the shares? The demand for them. The demand, the effective demand for it. So what a third party investor would pay for the shares. So the truly independent person looking at all of the fundamentals decide that she is worth to them and that is what they would pay for it. Because the share price is determined from the interaction of buyers and sellers and there's a trade executed, somebody is willing to pay X for the share and somebody else is willing to sell it for X. And that is how the price is determined. Go ahead, Alusia. It was finishing his points, I let him finish his. Yeah, as I was saying, so when you see that the share price is not moving, it's an indication that there are very low levels of trades in those securities. That doesn't mean that the security may not be a value may not be increasing. It's just that nobody has translated that into a price change on the market by trading at those areas. And a big part of that is our culture and the culture in our market is one, as Mr. Blake indicated earlier, where folks buy and hold. So the level of trading activity is not there. I mean, there are the things that affect the price of the stock will range from the level of earnings in that company. And as he indicated, a company may be profitable in growing their earnings and is a very valuable stock from that perspective. But the fact that it's not trading does not mean that no one wants it. It just may mean that for the shares that are there within the market, no one is willing to sell because somebody has to meet the demand and the supply side. And that's what we see in our market. So it's a bit sticky on the equity side. And Alusia, you're going to say? Yes. I was just going to add as well that, you know, securities markets operate on information. And as Nolan would have indicated, you know, if you, as an investor, you would want to know how well your company, the company that you've invested in is doing. And that is where the regulator comes in to make sure that issuers, those companies that have issued shares to the public that are listed on the ECSM, provide periodic information to the investors. So for example, there are requirements for issuers to submit to their shareholders, their annual reports, their audited financial statements. And this information also has to be presented to the commission. So in an ideal world, what would happen is that you would have, you know, information being fed to the market from these companies. And that sort of information would be used by investors and their brokers to assess a stock to determine, you know, should I keep this? Should I sell? Should I, you know, that is how the markets, international markets operate. And this is where we want to get to our market too in the 21st from after this, you know, going forward in our 24, our 21st anniversary. So we want to get our market to that level where persons have information and they use that information. And it's useful to them to make decisions that would promote that sort of activity that we want to see happening on the market. And just to add a plug, the commission, the information that is submitted to the commission is by the issuers is uploaded to a website. www.ecsin.com and information on all the companies, for example, changes in management, changes in auditors, the financial statements, the listed companies are required to submit quarterly accounts and reports as well. These are, can be viewed and are obtainable or accessible via the Eastern Caribbean Securities Information Network, which is a website that is included as part of the Eastern Caribbean Securities Regulatory Commission website. Just to tie everything in, I think that is one of the main reasons why you're seeing the inactivity on the market, because there's a general lack of understanding by investors or even the general population, the public, that they can buy and trade, you know, they just don't have to hold. There is an intrinsic value to the asset that they can discover, you know, as an investor. So I think that also contributes to the inactivity we're seeing in the market. Let's look at the element of risk and who, as an investor, well, from the investor's perspective, where does he or she get that guidance from? Apart from the broker who will show the risk profile of the investment that they're making, but there's an independent, is there an independent risk-rating entity that will, for example, on government bonds and government paper, you may have a moody in some jurisdictions. What exists here? So in the region, we have an organization called Carychris, and Carychris is a credit-rating agency, and the objective is to actually assess that entity's credit-worthiness relative to other issuing entities. So there is a regional scale, which is comparative across the region, and then there is a national scale as well. So Carychris does exist in the region, and it's based in Trinidad. So how do I find the information that they put out there? So Carychris lists the information very similarly to moodies and standard imports. One of the things to note is that it is an option of the issuer to actually go through a rating process. Because a rating process implies continuous assessment and review, as with the larger rating agencies. And in addition to that, the entity has to also agree to release that rating. And once that rating is released, you can find that online. Now it benefits entities issuers to have themselves assessed and rated, because then that rating factors into investors' risk approval process for the approval and into their securities. So there is a framework and there is quite a great framework within the OECS. A framework that's transparent, that's governed very well, that's highly efficient. It does exist. I just think that we really just have to look at the ways and the means to get that information more out into the general public, not just to investors but also to issuers, because it is also a very efficient way for issuers to raise capital. I'm just going to say, Carychris actually publishes their ratings for those, I should say, their public ratings and their private ratings. Some private ratings, those would not be published and an issuer could determine whether their rating would be private or public. But for the public ratings the Carychris issuers press release on those ratings and we would post those ratings on our website for the entities that are listed on the ECSE. So any ratings that by any of the entities that are listed on the ECSE once it is published, we would post it on our website. Okay, that's interesting to me in terms of the risk management side of things from the investors' perspective, how does an issuer enter the market? They're not listed? How do you become listed? How, let's say I have a corporate entity and I want to raise some funds I don't want to go to the bank to raise that capital, I want to raise it through the stock market. What is the process? They go to a brocadeena. I love the brocadeena. But actually there are tiers for different types of issuers and the market has established tiers for those issuers. There are entry-level equity tiers for equity issuers and as Trevor would have indicated earlier we do need to make a distinction between the type of issue that is on the markets. The issues that are on our markets are debt and equity. Whereas in debt equities debt instruments, I'm sorry are more like a loan type arrangement whereas equity you're actually gaining ownership in a company. So there is an entry-level tier for equity securities and as he indicated earlier the regional government securities market those are mainly debt instruments. So the regional government market is generally a debt instrument market so we're now shifting to where we're looking at how does a company raise financing to start up if they would or if they're looking to expand what can they do in terms of raising debt or equity. So there are tiers for issuers from my understanding at least be a going concern for the minimum tier for at least 18 months. Is that correct Trevor? That's correct. When I referred to you, I thought you were going to go through the actual process. A company comes to you and say look I want to You do have to start with which tier that that client may fit into and so there are established tiers for different categories of issuers sizes, aging capitalization and based on that those issues can then start going through the process that's established for listing. What has been happening in our market because as a broker we have been receiving quite a bit of inquiries from start-up type organizations and I was extremely heartened to see that our regulator has taken the bold step forward to actually start consultation and looking at a framework to provide some level of crowdfunding or venture capital type of raising for those start-up type entities. So there are ways to raise money in the market. You would come to a broker and you would sit in consultation with that broker. This is important for companies particularly if you're going to eventually raise funds in the market to maintain adequate and proper financial records. I think that is something that can be a challenge a lot of times because once you are listed there are requirements for continuous reporting and that's how the market is protected and that's how we keep the market efficient, the efficiency of the release of that information. So everyone has a decision based on shared information which is the goal of the market, the marketplace. I want to get the concept of debt and equity fully explained for viewers. Now as my understanding is somebody comes to the market looking to raise funds not to sell shares but to raise funds. They're looking for a loan primarily. They haven't gone to the bank but they've come to people who are willing to go to the stock market and buy their debt instrument. Is that what it is? So therefore if it is that those must be fixed terms because it has to mature at some stage. When do I get paid back? And how is that set? How are these terms set? Who sets the interest that I make? Obviously I'm not just going to throw money out and not get back the interest. Is it the issuer that makes a promise to pay a particular rate of interest? And does the regulator now ensure that that happens? Explain all of that process to me before we get to the equity part. Yes with debt the issuer comes to the market to raise capital through a debt issue like a bond or some other type of paper. It could be a note a shorter term note etc. The issuer must produce a prospectus published prospectus in which it sets out the terms of the offer including the ten of the instrument whether it's going to be a five year, ten year or even twenty year bond the interest rate whatever that it may choose to offer and in determining the offer it would look at the market conditions and see what would be a rate that the public would want to accept for that debt given its risk profile etc. And it determines the prospectus would also set out the frequency with which the interest would be paid and whether or not the payment on maturity of the instrument or the payment will be on maturity of the instrument in which what would be the sort of bullet payment or whether it will be paid over time in an amortization. A bond could be amortized over a particular schedule so maybe every six months you get a portion of the principle being redeemed and paid to you. So the prospectus will set out all of that. Important thing with that it's the certainty one that you will always get the interest provided of course so you have certainty in terms of the cash rules from that investment it will always be paid on that schedule and you will get your funds return to you, your principle that you have invested return to you in full at the end of the period in the case of a bullet instrument or over time in the case of an amortization. And on the equity side which is I think not on the same this is where somebody is actually selling shares so there's no maturity here if I want to dispose of my equity I have to sell at my own in my own time and I get dividends based on the company's performance I suppose so is it the broker that's keeping me abreast with all of this how do I know what my dividends are likely to be in 2023? You ask if it's the role of the broker but as an investor the investor has a role to monitor the performance of the investment remember it's an asset it's money that you put out it's not leave it and forget it so you also have a role to monitor the technical information of the company meaning looking at trends previous performance looking at future expectations looking at the economy looking at those things to come up with what you anticipate a dividend maybe whether they may be or not but remember when you make an investment in equity you're not just looking at a dividend to make a decision as to whether to buy and hold you're also looking at the value of the asset whether they have been capital gains whether you anticipate future capital gains as well so your decision to buy or sell should not be based only on the dividend or the return that you're actually getting on the asset I'd like to add that dividend policies are normally set by a company so dividends in essence is a payout of a certain percentage of profit at the end of a year or whatever a designated period may be so a company may indicate that they may pay out 40% of their dividends of their profits as dividends at the end of their financial year so those guidelines are normally set by the company who you are investing in just to add from the regulator's point of view Mr. Bleak would have mentioned the prospectors so under the securities laws every company if a company wants to offer securities to the public they would have to prepare prospectors and there are guidelines in the regulations as to what information that should be included in that prospectors and one of the elements or the components that needs to be included as Nolan would have indicated is a dividend policy so as part of the prospectors you put in you would need to the issuer would need to include the terms of the offer whether there is a minimum amount a minimum or maximum amount that they're looking for there's also as Mr. Bleak indicated the interest how it's going to be paid what your return is like and there's also information, general information on the issuer so the company background you have information on the directors the managers what are their qualifications we also have included information on whether there are any legal matters facing the company that may be a risk we also have included their information on the risk of the investments so the the prospective investor is encouraged to look at the prospectors with their broker or the investment advisor when they decide to make an investment and most importantly that document is reviewed by the regulator and the requirement under the law is that we approve that document and then there's the issue of information which goes back to what I was seeing earlier in terms of your role as a shareholder is to not just go to meetings and vote on issues, that's very good you should be participating in that way but you also have a responsibility to monitor the operations of that company to see what management changes are happening whether the company decides to change its name, change its business strategy these are things that you should be aware of and the information on that is available will be or should be available on the ECSRC's website www.ecsin.com because those companies that are listed and have issued shares or debt to the public are required to provide that periodic information to investors and the general public so it seems to me and we're starting to wind down on our time here but it seems to me that after 21 years which is the anniversary that you are celebrating you've got quite a solid structure in place to provide the sort of platform that's required for such a market to operate you've got excellent relationships with brokers represented here by two exemplary ones you have all of that but on the activity side given what one may profit the market to be a serious engine of economic growth and wealth creation in the currency union how do we get this market to the securities market to really max out on its potential to do that to increase wealth to drive economic growth yes that's a very important question and one which we are all engaged that is the crux really we aim to be a mechanism for wealth creation so how do we actually achieve that firstly we have to get more people participating so we need to get more investors coming into the market and seeking to benefit from invested on the market we want to do that in a number of ways we want to expand the range of product that we have on the market we want to reach more people and programs such as these are important in doing that in spreading the word and raising the awareness and we are trying to do much more of that we are trying to reach people through different media as well we are now engaged in social media to get more and more persons especially the younger persons involved in the market and knowing of the market seeking to benefit from the market we need to get more product as I said so we are again reaching out to more companies that exist in our region to get them to to list on the market because the more product you have there will be more chance of more activity happening if one of the problems we have with people trading what they already hold if you have a security and you sell it you want to be able to reinvest that money in another security so that you could expand the range of product on the market we need to look at new technology and we are now engaged with a FinTech firm out of Canada to create a digital asset trading platform in the region so again that is reaching that is producing another opportunity for persons who may be caught up in the whole blockchain technology to benefit from that in an organized and regulated manner we are looking at our diaspora anecdotally there are more persons living in North America and British cities than there are within our region so we are looking at to see how we could reach the diaspora in a way to get them to information on the markets and get them involved in marketing we need to also expand our broker dealer network we have of course here and we have four other broker dealers but we don't have a broker dealer in every country so we need to get that going as well we need to have new other forms of intermediaries investment advisors and things like that we are able to encourage and work with individuals to get them to enter the market so Trevor in the interest of time you have identified in that mode for quite a lot of things that need to be put in place, implemented massage to get this thing really good and I am assuming here that there are plans afoot to tackle everything that you have identified and over a very workable and aggressive period of time but Nolan and I think Alana did mention something earlier on about the culture of the people as well that has to be a big factor and what are we doing about that quickly in one minute that's a big hurdle Tony and that's the mountain we have to climb for us to start seeing more growth and for us to see the market actually be efficient in driving growth the mechanism is absolutely in place but the culture of family-owned businesses in our region and the hesitancy to actually open that up to ownership by individuals is something that we have to continue to address by continuing to educate the market I think the only way that we are going to change that mindset is to actually deepen the investment savvy of the market by continued education, continued outreach, continued preaching what the benefits are versus because the one thing that a lot of individuals will tell you when you speak to them about issuance is that this closure that's supposed to benefit all investors is an uncomfortable thing for some issuers or for some businesses and it's not that there's anything nefarious to say going on it's just that we are used to holding that information to our chest and that is a hurdle that we can only overcome with education and continued education and but even on the investor side as well so Nolan covered like on the issuer side people listing their businesses for investment but even on the investor side there is a lack of education even from institutional organizations from the school level for instance even young adults does not they don't understand we don't understand that was a part of our cultural upbringing the value of investments and wealth creation and our people are now at a phase where we can afford to because of the foundations laid by our parents and those gone before us that they have made it easier for us to move into wealth creation and I don't think the population the investing public has really embraced that as yet we still stick to the safe banking see banking as the only alternative but we see that the banking landscape is also changing and becoming more competitive and really and truly there is need to pursue other avenues to grow your wealth you know and have your money work for it after you work hard for it and can I just say one thing from the regulator side because we do have a role to play as well in this we are responsible for market development to some extent and so we are now looking at you know implementing or changing some of the policies and procedures that we have had in place for a long time that has not really worked too well for us so we are looking at those and making changes when necessary one of the most recent changes that we did was to reduce the capital requirement for license to become a broker dealer so we've reduced that under the new securities we've drafted a new securities law and the whole aim is to promote and get more different types of intermediaries involved in the market and I can say as well that we have a lot of interest from licensees who want to offer additional products on the market we're now looking at at least three companies that are looking at offering mutual funds so there is a lot being done and we're hoping that you know from very soon we will see a lot more diversification on the market and of course more persons getting involved and becoming interested on the education side I do agree as well that there's a lot of work that needs to be done there and we are also involved there as well I want to thank you all for spending this time with the viewers your 21st anniversary addressing the people here representing the market and your brokers who are here with you I hope we can have follow-up programs and this I hope has been informative and can help the people in the Currency Union to best understand how you offer an alternative for creating wealth this has been another edition of let's get down to business my guests were Mrs. Alana Joseph from the Grenada Corporative Bank Limited she's the Executive Manager of Wealth Management and Financial Services Mrs. Norland Gabriel Boy who is the Head of Regional Operations First Citizens Investment Mrs. Elucia Fissal the CEO of the Eastern Caribbean Securities Regulatory Commission and Mr. Trevor Bleak the Managing Director of the Eastern Caribbean Securities Exchange Thank you for viewing