Young: Interference in banking sector could trigger economic crisis

For­mer prime min­is­ter Stu­art Young has al­leged that po­lit­i­cal in­ter­fer­ence in T&T’s largest in­dige­nous fi­nan­cial in­sti­tu­tion can threat­en con­fi­dence in the coun­try’s bank­ing sys­tem, as he ques­tioned the cir­cum­stances sur­round­ing the de­par­ture of Re­pub­lic Fi­nan­cial Hold­ings Ltd’s (RFHL) ex­ec­u­tive Richard Sam­my and chal­lenged Gov­ern­ment’s claims that for­eign ex­change avail­abil­i­ty has im­proved.

Ad­dress­ing a Peo­ple’s Na­tion­al Move­ment (PNM) pub­lic meet­ing at City Hall in Port-of-Spain on Fri­day night, Young de­liv­ered a sharp cri­tique of the Gov­ern­ment’s han­dling of key eco­nom­ic is­sues, warn­ing sup­port­ers that po­lit­i­cal in­ter­fer­ence in ma­jor fi­nan­cial in­sti­tu­tions could have se­ri­ous con­se­quences.

His com­ments cen­tred on Re­pub­lic Fi­nan­cial Hold­ings, fol­low­ing last week’s an­nounce­ment that Sam­my had left the com­pa­ny by mu­tu­al agree­ment.