3rd Caribbean Conference on the International Financial Serv

3RD CARIBBEAN CONFERENCE ON THE INTERNATIONAL FINANCIAL SERVICES SECTOR THE CARIBBEAN ENGAGING THE WORLD IN FINANCIAL SERVICES

Kirk Taitt President Barbados Association of Compliance Professionals

Prior to undertaking responsibility for the risk and compliance function at an emerging financial services company in Barbados in November 2010, Kirk spent 8 years with CIBC FirstCaribbean International Bank Limited. As an Associate Director of Compliance for the Barbados operating company, he was responsible for rolling out the bank’s compliance strategy locally and provided support to compliance colleagues across the region, ensuring hundreds of staff were, on annual basis, appropriately trained in money laundering prevention and other compliance related matters. Kirk’s skills are complemented by a solid regulatory background through his employment with the Central Bank of Barbados from 1985-2000. He is the architect of two local training courses in regulatory compliance for the credit union industry, administered through the Barbados Cooperative Credit Union League. A Certified Compliance Professional with the Governance, Risk and Compliance Institute of Australia, Kirk holds a BSc in Management and a Master of Philosophy degree in Governance and Public Policy, both from the UWI Cave Hill Campus. His graduate thesis explored the threat posed by money laundering and terrorist financing to Caribbean international financial centres and analyzed whether regulation, on its own, could solve the problem.

Kirk is President and co-founder of the Barbados Association of Compliance Professionals.

Sona Varma Senior, Country Economist, LCSPE, Latin America and the Caribbean World Bank

Ms. Varma joined the World Bank soon after completing her PhD in Economics in 1993. She has worked in various departments of the World Bank, including the South Asia Region, the Bank’s credit risk Unit, and the Economic Policy and Debt Department where she worked extensively on issues related to debt relief and debt sustainability in low income countries. Since June 2012, Ms. Varma has been assigned to the Latin America and Caribbean Region of the World Bank, where she works on the Caribbean. Her current assignment is Senior Country Economist for Jamaica. Between 2006 and 2010, Sona was on leave from the World Bank and was based in India, where she worked on financial inclusion and microfinance as a senior economic advisor for India’s largest private sector bank.