Earl Jarrett, member of the Financial Services Advisor board and deputy chairman and CEO of The Jamaica National Group: “The removal of correspondent banking services to the Caribbean is a direct result of U.S. policies aimed at addressing money laundering primarily from illicit trade in narcotics. Banks, fearful of losing their correspondent banking services and the due diligence costs, have imposed restrictions or removed the service from Caribbean banks. Caribbean countries or ‘small-island developing states’ depend heavily on international trade to provide citizens with food, health care, production inputs for most goods and services including tourism, agriculture and mining, in addition to remittances which, for some countries, is as high as 28 percent of GDP. Caribbean states have open economies. The ability to settle transactions depends on…”