21 SEPARATE FINANCIAL STATEMENTS 2023 as advocates for youth services at the Credit Union and also serve as liaisons for youth members in our school societies and community outreaches. Thrift Club Membership During the period under review, amendments to By-laws 2(2) & 21 were made to allow for the implementation of a separate qualifying share for members under 16 years of age. These amendments, paired with the previously approved amendment to By-law 13 (1) which removed the age restriction required for Credit Union membership, will allow members under 16 years of age to join with a permanent share of $50 and a membership fee of $5 once implemented. We anticipate that this development will result in growth in this important youth demographic across the Thrift Club membership and the School Savers programme. Thrift Club Events Financial Literacy Workshop A Financial Literacy Workshop for teens 15 – 18 years of age, entitled Money: What’s the Big Deal? was held from July 25 – 29, 2022. Based on the feedback received from the thirty participants and their parents, the workshop which covered the below topics was well received: • Cryptocurrencies, Digital Dollars and the Future of Money • Investing • The link Between Money and Mental Health • Personal Financial Decision Making - Which Financial Products are You Most Curious About? • 10 Steps to Financial Success • Income: Careers and Entrepreneurship Annual Thrift Club Academic Awards During the past fiscal period, the annual Thrift Club Academic Awards ceremony returned in the form of an in-person event for the first time since the onset of COVID-19 on the island. Fifty-eight young credit union achievers were recognized for their outstanding achievements across the various examination categories below at a total investment of Barbados sixty-six thousand eight hundred dollars: • Barbados Secondary Schools’ Entrance Examination (BSSEE) • Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate (CSEC) • Caribbean Advanced Proficiency Examinations (CAPE) • Government Award of Excellence • Government Exhibition • Government Scholarship Recipients of the academic awards and scholarships for the reporting period are shown in an appendix to this report. Congratulations on a job well-done is extended to all awardees on their special achievement and to all members who took up the challenge of enhancing their knowledge through any form of study and learning, whether in a formal or informal setting. The attainment of knowledge remains critical to self-development and plays a pivotal role in empowering individuals and transforming societies. May your journey in both be rewarding and successful! Data Privacy & Protection As noted in last year’s report, the Barbados Data Protection Act, 2019 (BDPA) was promulgated locally to regulate the collection, keeping, processing, use and dissemination of personal data by business entities. In order to develop a roadmap that would allow the Credit Union to get to a state of compliance, the organisation issued a Request for Proposal for Data Privacy consultancy services and selected Ernst & Young as the successful vendor to guide the process. With the assistance of this highly qualified partner, the Credit Union is seeking to minimise financial, compliance, and reputational risk impacts to the organization. Specific assistance was sought for guidance with regards to the following key activities: • Data and vendor assessments • A gap analysis detailing the current state of the Group compared to the requirements of the Barbados Data Protection Act • Determination of the staff training required for Barbados Data Protection Act roles • Development of implementation roadmaps for compliance The initial privacy assessment performed by Ernst & Young assisted with: • Building an understanding of how the Credit Union operates today across people, processes, technology, and organization. • Assessing gaps in relation to data protection and the storage of personal data. • Conducting training sessions on the credit union’s Record of Processing Activities (RoPA) and Data protection impact assessments (DPIA) and identifying the importance and impact of the BDPA on the organization. • Identifying gaps that should be addressed in a Privacy Program and privacy rules to follow to ensure compliance. • Creating the foundation for the future state design of an effective privacy function and program. Given the newness of the BDPA and the recent completion of the first phase of what is to be a multi-phased project to transition us into a state of compliance, the Credit Union’s privacy program remains in an infancy stage. Multiple key documents and processes that will drive the operationalisation of the privacy program are still to be developed and implemented, and these will be done as a second phase of the project in line with the recommendations coming out of the initial report received. An
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy MTA2MDM=