Deposits From Foreign Governments
A baseline for assessing BCCI's principal relationships with foreign governments is to review the deposits it received from Central Banks. At one level, the choice of BCCI as a depository for a Central Bank of a Third World country might seem logical. BCCI had marketed itself as the Third World bank, devoted to providing the best possible services to the Third World. However, every central banker also knew that BCCI, as a bank not based in any one country, had no lender of last resort, and no consolidated audit.
Thus, deposits in BCCI were potentially a very substantial risk for any Central Bank. If BCCI failed, the Central Bank funds would not be protected, but would be treated like the funds of any other depositor. Despite these obvious risks to placing funds with BCCI, dozens of countries placed their reserves with the bank, in some cases, at very substantial, and imprudent, levels.
BCCI document repositories in the United States, unfortunately only contain records pertaining to such deposits in BCCI-Miami, and thus, these represent only a fraction of the total. For example, a number the countries that had deposits at BCCI in the United States would also maintain deposits — usually larger ones — at BCCI in Panama, where they would be more protected from creditors.
Typical deposits at BCCI-Miami by central banks and governmental organizations, usually in certificates of deposit, are listed below:
Organization Amount Date
Andean Reserve Fund $15,884,000 July 31, 1988
Central Bank of Aruba 6,000,000 July 31, 1988
Central Bank of Barbados 5,000,000 May 31, 1985
Central Bank of Belize 12,000,000 July 31, 1988
Central Bank of Bolivia 14,414,000 July 31, 1988
Banco de la Rep de Colombia 3,050,346 Aug 4, 1986
Central Bank of Curacao 25,000,000 July 31, 1988
Eastern Caribbean Bank 2,000,000 March 28, 1985
Caribbean Development Bank 3,025,786 June 28, 1985
Bank of China 15,000,000 Dec 31, 1985
Fed. Cafeterios Colombia 10,000,000 July 31, 1985
Banco de Guatemala 3,000,000 July 31, 1988
Bank of Jamaica 13,700,000 July 31, 1986
Jamaica Petroleum/PETROJAM 7,137,437 Jan 31, 1986
Banco Nacional de Panama UNKNOWN Dec 31, 1984
Central Bank of Paraguay 5,000,000 Oct 10, 1989
Central Bank of Suriname UNKNOWN Nov 3, 1986
Central Bank St. Kitt 8,500,000 July 31, 1988
Central Bank Trinidad 5,000,000 Oct 31, 1984
Venezuela Investment Fund 24,000,000 July 31, 1988
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