WILLEMSTAD-Current acting president-director of the Central Bank of Curaçao and St. Maarten (CBCS) Jerry Hasselmeyer stepped down as of the end of this week, because on Saturday he reaches the mandatory retirement age of sixty at the institute.

Management member Alberto “Chos” Romero will succeed him. It is only a temporary solution as he too will go on pension in November, confirmed Finance Minister Kenneth Gijsbertha.

Romero agreed to not take his saved up vacation days, which would have led to his departure in August, while Hasselmeyer had earlier done the same. Parties must now determine if these days will be compensated.

Gijsbertha and his St. Maarten counterpart Richard Gibson are looking into keeping Hasselmeyer on in a different function for which there is no mandatory retirement, so his knowledge and experience are not lost. This will, of course, be done in consultation with Romero.

The new Supervisory Board that is to be installed within the next two weeks will be in charge of filling the vacancies at the top of the monetary authority. Seven candidate board members, three each representing the two shareholders plus proposed join chairman Etienne Ys, have already been selected.

While it is not a requirement, they will be screened in the same manner as government ministers in view of all the controversy surrounding the Central Bank in recent years. This will be combined with the screening CBCS normally does for appointments at financial institutions under its supervision.

Two of the current board members, Tom Kok and Miriela Carolina, refuse to go quietly. However, Gijsbertha said it is necessary to place the entire board because there is no mutual confidence and he hopes “common sense” will prevail.

Bron: Daily Herald