PRESIDENT OF the Caribbean Development Bank (CDB), Dr Warren Smith, projected an unmistakable optimistic mood yesterday in forecasting that the regional institution would roll back by year end the slightly downgraded status recently received from international rating agencies Moody’s and Standard and Poor’s. The 42-year-old regional premiere banking institution, which originally secured the enviable AAA  rating in 1992 and continues to have impressive working relations with the international financial institutions (IFIs), had its triple-A status downgraded to AA+ by both Moody’s and S&Ps as a consequence of claimed  “weaker risk management”.
Yesterday, Dr Smith, a national of Jamaica who has long been working with the CDB before being elected as its new President in 2010, told a press conference that he was not going to engage in any public disagreement with the two investment rating agencies which would already be aware of the reservations of the bank’s management over their criteria for the downgraded adjustment.
What he was quite confident about, stressed Dr Smith,  was the determination of the CDB to overcome the allotted new AA+ status as soon as possible, by objective assessment of the “risk management” factor referenced by Moody’s and S&Ps .
This would be done by securing advice of a leading, respectable international consulting agency, while the CDB remains focused on responding to its obligations to its 18 borrowing member countries, in cooperation with international donors, and maintaining good working relations with development partner institutions like the World Bank and the Inter-American Development Bank.
During its annual Board of Governors meeting last month, the CDB signed a partnership agreement with the World Bank and the IDB to be involved, along with the United Kingdom Agency for International Development (DFID) and the Canadian Development Agency (CIDA) for the creation of a Caribbean Growth Forum to identify policies and initiatives to induce growth and boost employment in this region.
Insisting that the bank’s management outlook was stable, President Smith said that the borrowing member countries that benefitted from the institution’s commitment, and which  continue to honour their own respective obligation, could rest assured of continuing support,  while specific efforts were being made to address the slight  “downgrade judgement” by the two rating agencies.