Dec 18 - GSD Welcomes GIB But Insists Further Questions Must be Raised
Following the Government’s recent statement on the development of the Gibraltar International Bank, the Opposition has insisted that the announcement raises very important questions. The GSD claims that the policy did not appear in the GSLP’s 2011 manifesto, as they claimed, but instead was a GSD policy. Opposition spokesman Damon Bossino today noted that the GSLP was ‘exclusively committed to the expansion of services to the Gibraltar Savings Bank.’
He adds that the Opposition has been questioning the Government on the regulation of the expanded services they promised to provide for the GSB. They refused to acknowledge that further regulation was required ‘because the Savings Bank was not doing anything which it had not done before.’
The Opposition welcomes the Government’s change of heart and the decision to proceed done a similar route to the one the GSD proposed some time ago. The party insists that this is particularly so following Barclays’ decision to reduce its presence in Gibraltar.
Commenting further on the matter, Damon Bossino said, ‘the Government press release fails to address very important issues which the Opposition assumes has been debated and addressed by the Cabinet as a whole. Questions relating to the capitalisation of the new bank; which entity is going to provide the funding; whether the funding will be provided by Credit Finance Company Limited, any other Government entity or the Savings bank; what the precise nature of the Government’s and the Savings Bank involvement will be; how independently managed is the Bank going to be; how the board of directors will be appointed; details of the professional team which has been engaged; the detail of the Banking services it is going to provide; the ambition of the timings for opening (third quarter of 2014).
‘It is interesting that all of these highly relevant questions are conspicuously absent from the Government’s announcement. The Government is therefore invited to respond publicly to these points.’
