The announcement that Central Bank of Curaçao and St. Maarten (CBCS) President-director Richard Doornbosch will step down effective September 1 (see related story) adds to existing concerns over the financial sector supervisor. He is joining the Dutch Authority for Financial Markets (AFM).
CBCS said its Supervisory Board had already started the procedure to search for a successor. However, as a letter on today’s opinion pages suggests, this person needs not only monetary and financial experience plus legal affinity and understanding, but must be able to function in a politically sensitive environment.
The author, himself a former president of the -then still Antillean- Central Bank, thinks the main challenge is to rise above any conflict between the two Dutch Caribbean countries. Therefore, the appointee must not be a candidate of Curaçao or St. Maarten, but someone whose conduct both can trust.
The latter is good advice also, in light of the continued impasse regarding a new joint chairman for the Supervisory Board, which has three regular members each proposed by the respective shareholders. Approval by five-sixths of them is required for both functions.
As argued earlier in this column, CBCS represents the entire monetary union rather than either of its shareholders. When dismantling the former Netherlands Antilles per 10-10-10 it was agreed to keep a shared Central Bank and common currency, namely the -now Caribbean- guilder.
Choices have consequences. Everyone involved knew what they were getting into, while doing anything together usually requires compromise and a willingness to cooperate.
In that sense, the next CBCS president as well as chairperson should, first and foremost, be bridge-builders.
