A reception hosted by His Excellency Governor Andrew George and Mrs George to mark the retirement of John Lawrence as Director of the Financial Services Commission. It was attended by many colleagues in the financial industry, Government officials, family and friends.

L-R: Mr. John Lawrence, Governor Andrew George and Mr. Niguel Streete

The Governor noted that he was very pleased that John (and Lindsay) Lawrence will be staying in Anguilla, although he is retiring from his position as Director of Financial Services. He spoke of Anguilla’s wave of prosperity and also the need to have alternatives to the tourist industry. He noted that the Financial Services industry was growing steadily and with good hard working people and good regulations it will continue to grow. He welcomed the new Director, Niguel Streete, saying that he was confident he will be a worthy successor. He wished the Lawrences and Streete every success for the future.

Lawrence said that he was retiring from the Financial Services Commission after serving for ten years with the Government, as he believed it was time to move on and “to pass the mantle on to someone else to move the Commission forward.” He announced that he will be working in the private sector. He observed that there had been many happy and challenging memories during the past ten years. He mentioned particularly the thrill of representing Anguilla at international meetings and also the progress of the department, from being a small part of the Ministry of Finance to an independent statutory body, the Financial Services Commission. The Commission has now been in existence for almost 3 years and Lawrence said he was pleased to report that there are 255 licensees regulated by the Commission and the Commission’s total assets are currently just short of US $1 million.

The retiring Director thanked the many persons that he has worked with including the present and past Governors, the Chief Minister Osbourne Fleming, the Minister of Finance, Victor Banks, Marcel Fahie, Ronald Scipio and Board Members of the Commission, Dennis Cross, Ralph Hodge, Carl Harrigan and more recently Claudel Romney who replaced Alex Richardson. He also thanked members of his staff Derek St. Rose, Maria Smith, Lavie Hobson, Ismania Richardson and Camilla Gumbs as well as a special thank you to his wife, Lindsay, who has supported him over the years.

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