Gaston Browne, prime minister of Antigua and Barbuda, told the United Nations General Assembly on Saturday that, along with climate change and lingering indebtedness, Caribbean islands face another existential threat from the withdrawal by global banks of correspondent banking relations to their financial institutions.
In the global campaign against money-laundering and terrorist financing, very strict penalties have been imposed on banks by regulatory bodies in North America and Europe for any infringement of the stringent regulations.