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# Trinidad's Central Bank Published a Five-Year Plan. Its Foreign Exchange Shortage Appears Once, as Background.
- URL: https://www.lacaribenanews.com/trinidad-central-bank-strategic-plan-foreign-exchange-absent-2026/
- Published: 2026-10-12T02:52:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-16T21:06:33.000Z
- Description: The Central Bank of Trinidad and Tobago launched its Strategic Plan 2026/27 to 2030/31 on 1 October 2026, setting 3 themes, 8 objectives and 23 projects. Across 28 pages the phrase "foreign exchange" appears once, in the outlook section. No objective and no project addresses it.
- Author: Theon Alleyne
- Tags: business, Caribbean, Trinidad and Tobago, banking, Guyana

**Quick summary:** The Central Bank of Trinidad and Tobago launched its Strategic Plan 2026/27 to 2030/31 on 1 October 2026, setting 3 themes, 8 objectives and 23 projects. Across 28 pages the phrase "foreign exchange" appears once, in the outlook section. No objective and no project addresses it.

By LCN Business Desk

Trinidad and Tobago's central bank has told the public what it will work on until 2031\. The document runs to 28 pages, names three themes, eight strategic objectives and twenty-three projects, and carries a foreword from the Governor.

The country's foreign exchange shortage is not one of them. It surfaces only in a paragraph describing the environment the Bank operates in.

## What does the plan set out to do?

The plan is titled "Insight to Impact". The [Strategic Plan 2026/27 to 2030/31](https://www.central-bank.org.tt/about-us/our-strategic-plan/?ref=lacaribenanews.com) was approved by the Board of Directors and launched on 1 October 2026.

The themes are Monetary Stability, carrying the sub-heading Institutional Agility; Financial Stability, Technology Enabled; and Internal Operations, Execution Discipline.

Governor Larry Howai set the standard in his foreword and at the launch. "We must become agile enough to respond to rapid change, technologically enabled enough to harness data and innovation, and disciplined enough to execute consistently and effectively," he said. His foreword describes a vision of "a truly transformed organisation, one that is agile, innovative, and able to compare favourably with leading Central Banks anywhere in the world."

|                                      | Count  |
| ------------------------------------ | ------ |
| Strategic themes                     | 3      |
| Strategic objectives                 | 8      |
| **Strategic projects**               | **23** |
| Projects addressing foreign exchange | **0**  |

Source: Central Bank of Trinidad and Tobago, Strategic Plan 2026/27 to 2030/31.

## Where does foreign exchange appear?

In the Current Situation and Outlook, as one item in a list of pressures. The sentence reads that "persistent foreign exchange constraints, dependence on external energy markets, and the potential for imported inflation underscore the importance of maintaining sound monetary, financial stability, and reserve management policies."

That is the whole of it, and the only time the document uses the phrase. "Exchange rate" does not appear at all.

The same sentence names dependence on external energy markets, and that dependence has been moving against Trinidad. Its operator wrote down the Calypso gas project and left, reported in [Trinidad Called Calypso a Priority in May 2025](https://www.lacaribenanews.com/bp-woodside-calypso-trinidad-gas-project-exit-2026/), it has been asking Guyana for hydrocarbons since 2024 without an agreement, set out in [Trinidad Has Been Asking Guyana for Hydrocarbons Since 2024](https://www.lacaribenanews.com/guyana-trinidad-gas-talks-no-agreement-2026/), and its gas utilisation has fallen while it signs up data centres, covered in [Trinidad Has Signed Up 800 Megawatts of Data Centres](https://www.lacaribenanews.com/trinidad-data-centres-golconda-gas-allocation-2026/). Energy earnings are where the foreign currency comes from.

The eight objectives are a modern integrated monetary framework, deeper domestic capital markets, a strengthened payments ecosystem, a formal macroprudential policy framework, enhanced prudential oversight, institutionalised execution discipline, a future-ready talent pipeline, and reinforced financial consumer protection.

> None of the twenty-three projects is directed at the constraint the plan names in its own outlook.

## What is the plan's biggest single commitment?

Payments, by a distance. Four of the twenty-three projects sit under the payments objective.

Project 6 modernises payment and settlement infrastructure "for expanded service including Instant Payments", covering real-time gross settlement and intraday settlement arrangements. Project 9 modernises payment systems oversight and regulation ahead of the Payments Bill. Project 7 upgrades regulatory returns for the banking sector.

Project 8 reaches outside the country. It commits the Bank to "support the development of regional cross-border payment system arrangements, consistent with the G20 2027 targets."

That work has a visible track. Four Caribbean governors met Africa's payment system in Port of Spain last month, reported in [Four Caribbean Governors Met Africa's Payment System in Port of Spain](https://www.lacaribenanews.com/caricom-capss-papss-central-banks-port-of-spain-2026/), and Trinidad is building two payment rails in parallel, one with India and one with Africa, set out in [Trinidad Is Building Two Payment Systems](https://www.lacaribenanews.com/trinidad-guyana-india-upi-capss-papss-payment-rails-2026/).

The rest of the plan is supervisory and internal. Projects 11 to 16 cover supervisory analytics, crisis management and resolution, pension regulation, system-wide stress testing, climate risk supervision and a law reform agenda. Project 4 supports the onboarding of Islamic banking. Projects 17 to 23 cover data governance, records management, programme governance, enterprise risk, talent, artificial intelligence and automation, and consumer protection.

## Why does a Trinidad plan matter in Georgetown?

Because Trinidad's shortage has been arriving in Guyana's foreign exchange market, and both of Guyana's most senior officials have said so on the record.

Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo said in August 2023 that "some Trinidadian companies are procuring large quantities of goods for their businesses in Guyana and in Trinidad and making payments from here to their suppliers." He attributed it to conditions next door: "a lot of Trinidadian companies, because of intense foreign currency shortages and intense control, for months and months people can't get foreign currency in that country."

He returned to it in October 2024, when Guyana tightened its own foreign exchange trading. Some Trinidadian companies, he said, were "paying for their goods from here directly because they have foreign exchange control, they don't have foreign currency there."

President Irfaan Ali put it as an open question of policy on 31 December 2024\. "We have to see whether there are other markets that are buying through our system for their markets, and that is something that we are looking at," he said, in the same remarks in which he gave the growth in Bank of Guyana sales to commercial banks between 2019 and 2024 as 1,744 per cent.

Jagdeo has said the practice may not be illegal. What the three statements establish is that the demand is real, that it is cross-border, and that Georgetown has been watching it for more than two years.

The commercial traffic between the two countries has been thickening in the same period. The Georgetown Chamber signed two Trinidad agreements in nine weeks this year, reported in [The Georgetown Chamber Signed Two Trinidad Agreements in Nine Weeks](https://www.lacaribenanews.com/the-georgetown-chamber-signed-two-trinidad-agreements-in-nine-weeks-the-honey-ban-they-target-has-been-law-since-1935/).

## What else is on the Bank's near-term list?

Physical currency and the coinage. A Series 2026 one hundred dollar note carrying an updated national Coat of Arms is expected, alongside upgraded cash-processing infrastructure, and the five-cent coin is under review with a decision on demonetisation expected later in 2026.

Those are the measures that drew most of the coverage of the launch. They sit outside the twenty-three strategic projects.

### What the title card shows

Every data point on the article's title card, in text. Source for all: Central Bank of Trinidad and Tobago, Strategic Plan 2026/27 to 2030/31, except where stated.

\* **1 mention.** Times the phrase "foreign exchange" appears in the 28-page plan, in the Current Situation and Outlook section. \* **0 mentions.** Times the phrase "exchange rate" appears in the plan. \* **23 projects.** The plan's total, under 8 strategic objectives and 3 themes. None is directed at foreign exchange. \* **4 projects.** The number under the payments objective, the largest single block in the plan. \* **1 October 2026.** The launch date, following approval by the Board of Directors. \* **2027.** The G20 target year the Bank's regional cross-border payments project is aligned to. \* **1,744 per cent.** Growth in Bank of Guyana sales of foreign currency to commercial banks between 2019 and 2024, as given by President Irfaan Ali on 31 December 2024.

## Frequently Asked Questions

What is in the Central Bank of Trinidad and Tobago's new strategic plan?

The Strategic Plan 2026/27 to 2030/31, themed "Insight to Impact", sets three strategic themes, eight objectives and twenty-three projects covering monetary policy, financial stability and the Bank's internal operations. It was launched on 1 October 2026.

Does the plan address Trinidad's foreign exchange shortage?

The plan refers to "persistent foreign exchange constraints" once, in its outlook section, as one of several pressures on the economy. None of its eight objectives and none of its twenty-three projects is directed at foreign exchange, and the phrase "exchange rate" does not appear in the document.

What does the plan prioritise instead?

Payments carries the largest block of work, with four projects covering instant payments and real-time gross settlement, payments oversight ahead of the Payments Bill, regulatory returns, and regional cross-border payment arrangements aligned to the G20's 2027 targets.

How does this affect Guyana?

Guyana's Vice President and President have both said publicly that Trinidadian companies have been buying foreign currency through Guyana's market to pay suppliers, because of foreign exchange shortages and controls in Trinidad. Those statements were made in August 2023, October 2024 and December 2024.

Who is the Governor?

Larry Howai, who said at the launch that the Bank must become "agile enough to respond to rapid change, technologically enabled enough to harness data and innovation, and disciplined enough to execute consistently and effectively."