Global data privacy consultancy Securys was the lead sponsor in the regional data protection forum held on Wednesday, March 20, at Hilton Barbados Resort in Bridgetown.

The event, dubbed ‘Compliance Beyond Borders: Insights from Financial Regulators’, was moderated by Ben Rapp, the company’s group CEO.

The event was hosted by the Data Protection Commission, Financial Services Commission Barbados (FSC Barbados) and Central Bank of Barbados .

Critical topics to advance the compliance agenda were addressed and ventilated during the gathering of some of the region’s top financial minds and data protection regulators across the Caribbean, including Jamaica’s Information Commissioner Celia Barclay who attended virtually and participated in a panel discussion.

Securys Group CEO Ben Rapp facilitated a discussion about the sharing of data across territories with Barclay, Barbadian Data Protection Commissioner Lisa Greaves and Bermuda’s Privacy Commissioner Alexander White. During the panel, Barclay said data breaches pose significant risks to an entity’s integrity.

“It is these intangible assets, such as goodwill [and] the reputation of an organisation, that are now priceless. This is what we have to be looking to protect and that’s the approach we encourage our data controllers to take,” said Barclay.

Placing the onus on organisations that collect data, Barclay said, “Implementing adequate measures will often require you to revisit your policies and your procedures.”

She says that while there are sanctions for not keeping data safe, there are no penalties for overprotecting and an organisation cannot do too much to ensure data privacy. She also spoke about the differences in regulatory laws across the Caribbean and how she and other regional data regulators have been working together to establish standards and best practices for sharing data across jurisdictions.

Rapp also moderated the panel ‘Data Protection in Financial Services – Aligning Regulatory Compliance’, which featured Greaves, FSC Barbados CEO Warrick Ward and CBB Deputy Governor Elson Gaskin. In his presentation, the Securys Group CEO, who sees data privacy as a fundamental human right, described it as a ‘trust builder’, which will increase consumer confidence and improve the relationships between financial institutions and their customers.

Rapp is a data privacy expert with extensive experience in the Caribbean, serving as Data Protection Officer DPO for Sagicor in both Jamaica and Barbados. His company Securys is a global data protection consultancy that serves organisations operating across markets that have new or pending data protection legislation, as well as those with long-established rules.

Caribbean nations like Jamaica and Barbados have recently passed data protection legislation and companies have been grappling with how to become and remain compliant. Securys, with Rapp at the helm, is one company that has been assisting entities across the region.