Central Bank of the Bahamas' Supervisory Response and Guidance for the Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19)

Published: Friday April 24th, 2020

The Central Bank of The Bahamas has been closely monitoring the global and domestic economic impact of the Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic and has been taking appropriate measures to safeguard the Bahamian financial system. Following the World Health Organization's (WHO's) declaration of the virus a global pandemic on 11th March 2020, the Government of The Bahamas moved swiftly to introduce control measures to mitigate public health risk, with necessary tradeoffs constraining domestic economic activity. In particular, the Government issued the Emergency Powers (COVID-19) Order, 2020 in March, providing the framework under which a Competent Authority has been established with powers to manage the public health crisis. The Bahamas was also negatively impacted by the accelerate shutdown in international travel, and swift closure of the tourism plant. Under the Emergency Powers, domestic commercial activities have been streamlined to essential goods and services, including basic domestic financial services.

The operations of Supervised Financial Institutions (SFIs) have also been drastically modified since March, to comply with the Emergency Powers (COVID-19) Order, 2020 and regulations issued under the Order.

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