PHILIPSBURG--Former Antillean Prime Minister Etienne Ys has clarified that his appointment as chairperson of the supervisory board of the Central Bank of Curaçao and St. Maarten (CBCS) in 2017 was based on a nomination from St. Maarten. His statement adds a new element to the ongoing dispute between the two governments over which country should nominate the next chair of the shared central bank.
According to Ys, his nomination followed what he described as a “gentleman’s agreement” between the countries. “Based on a gentleman’s agreement, I was proposed by St. Maarten.” He added that, to his knowledge, the arrangement was never formalised through official documents or decrees.
The clarification is significant because the current disagreement between St. Maarten’s Minister of Finance Marinka Gumbs and Curaçao’s Minister of Finance Charles Cooper reportedly centres on the history of the chairperson and the informal rotation between the two countries.
Gumbs has argued that St. Maarten should now have the opportunity to put forward the next chairperson. Her position is reportedly based on a prior verbal understanding with former Curaçao Minister of Finance Javier Silvania regarding how the post would rotate between the two countries.
However, Cooper has maintained that it is Curaçao’s turn to nominate the next chair. His position is based on the view that the last mutually agreed chairperson was Ys and that he was nominated by St. Maarten, a point now confirmed by Ys himself.
Although past arrangements regarding the leadership of the CBCS have often been guided by informal agreements rather than written rules, the issue has now become central to the negotiations between the two governments over the issue. CBCS plays a key role in overseeing monetary policy and financial supervision within the monetary union of Curaçao and St. Maarten. As a result, the selection of its leadership is closely watched by policymakers and the financial sector in both countries.
