Roach Convenes Meeting of the Banking Board on Critical Financial Issues

Lieutenant Governor Tregenza Roach Esq. is also chairman of the Virgin Islands Banking Board (Source file photo)

At the V.I. Banking Board meeting on Monday, which was chaired by Lt. Gov. Tregenza A. Roach, the board accepted Oriental Bank’s report that it has addressed all of the board’s requirements following the bank’s recent conversion challenges, including reimbursements to clients who suffered a financial hardship.

The board also entered orders regarding the use of cryptocurrency in the territory and accepted Firstbank’s report on actions taken to protect customers following a recent cybersecurity event.

After learning of Firstbank’s cybersecurity event, the lieutenant governor requested information on the incident which impacted customers throughout the entire territory. Representatives from Firstbank were required to provide an incident report and share an update on steps taken to address the problem.

“Upon receiving an update on corrective actions undertaken by Firstbank, the Virgin Islands Banking Board is satisfied that Firstbank has taken the steps necessary to protect access to customer data. We look forward to additional reports resulting from an ongoing investigation and hope to use this experience to strengthen our inquiries on cybersecurity, particularly when we conduct the annual State of the Bank report,” said Roach.

The banking board also received a presentation from representatives of Paypal, a licensed money transmitter in the territory, which desires to provide cryptocurrency/ digital currency, for use in financial transactions.

“At this time, cryptocurrency is not authorized for use in the territory and the board wanted to ensure that Paypal, as a licensed money transmitter, acknowledges to its customers the benefits and risks that are associated with the use of cryptocurrency and make it clear to customers that this currency type is not currently authorized for use,” said Roach.