Caribbean Regional Technical Assistance Centre (CARTAC)

What Caribbean Regional Technical Assistance Centre (CARTAC) does

CARTAC (Caribbean Regional Technical Assistance Centre) is one of ten Regional Technical Assistance Centers (RTACs) operated by the International Monetary Fund, established by the CARICOM Council of Ministers of Finance and Planning in September 1999 and operational since November 2001. Headquartered in St. Michael, Barbados, it delivers capacity building to 22+ Caribbean member countries including Anguilla, Antigua & Barbuda, The Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Bermuda, BVI, Cayman Islands, Jamaica, Trinidad & Tobago, and others. The centre is currently in its sixth operational phase (May 2024–April 2029) under Director Matthew Byrne, who was appointed in August 2024.

The centre operates across six core technical assistance areas: Public Finance Management, Tax and Customs Administration, Financial Sector Supervision and Financial Stability, Debt Management, Economic and Financial Statistics, and Macroeconomic Programming Analysis. Services are delivered through resident advisors (~9 specialists covering each core area), short-term expert missions, hands-on training, regional workshops and seminars, professional attachments, and policy development support. CARTAC does not develop proprietary technology products; rather, it transfers IMF methodologies and internationally agreed frameworks (PEFA, BPM6, GFS) into Caribbean government finance ministries and central banks. Recent additions to the portfolio include Financial Stability advisory and climate finance / green bonds within the Debt Management stream.

CARTAC's revenue model is donor-funded rather than commercial. The operating budget is financed primarily by the Government of Canada (largest contributor), the UK Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO), the European Union, the Government of the Netherlands, the Caribbean Development Bank, and the Eastern Caribbean Central Bank, supplemented by annual contributions from the 22+ member countries and in-kind office support from the Government of Barbados. Technical assistance services are provided free of charge to member countries. Governance is exercised through a Steering Committee comprising representatives of recipient countries, donors, and the IMF, with the Director appointed by the IMF. Total staff is approximately 20 (resident advisors plus administrative personnel), making CARTAC a high-leverage, small-footprint delivery vehicle for IMF capacity development in the Caribbean.

Name

Caribbean Regional Technical Assistance Centre (CARTAC)

Legal name

Caribbean Regional Technical Assistance Centre

Website

https://cartac.org

Company type

Private

Founded year

2001

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

1–10 employees

Short description

CARTAC is an IMF Regional Technical Assistance Centre headquartered in Barbados, delivering free capacity-building services in public finance, tax, financial supervision, debt, statistics, and macro programming to 22+ Caribbean member governments. It is funded by donor contributions from Canada, the UK FCDO, the EU, and other development partners.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

International Development and Capacity Building Services

NAICS

Public Finance Activities (92113)

SIC

Finance Services (6199)

akta.pro primary industry

National Development Banks & State Development Finance Institutions (DFIs) (BPADACAC)

Keywords

• Public finance management
• Tax administration assistance
• Financial sector supervision
• Debt management advisory
• Macroeconomic statistics training

Headquarters

HQ city

St. Michael

HQ country

Barbados

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Operations, Others

Revenue model

1. Donor Funding: CARTAC is primarily funded through contributions from development partners including the Government of Canada (largest contributor), United Kingdom (FCDO), European Union, Government of the Netherlands, Caribbean Development Bank, and Eastern Caribbean Central Bank. This is grant funding to support capacity building activities.
2. Member Country Contributions: The 22+ beneficiary countries make annual contributions to the Centre's operating expenses. Additionally, the Government of Barbados finances the costs of office facilities.

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels1 record

Marketing channels5 records

Core offering

CARTAC provides free technical assistance and capacity building to 23 Caribbean member countries through six core service areas: Public Finance Management, Tax and Customs Administration, Financial Sector Supervision and Financial Stability, Debt Management, Economic and Financial Statistics, and Macroeconomic Programming Analysis. Services are delivered via resident advisors, short-term expert missions, workshops, seminars, professional attachments, and policy development support, all backstopped by IMF headquarters and aligned with international standards such as PEFA, BPM6, and GFS. Funding is provided by development partners (Canada, UK FCDO, EU, Netherlands, CDB, ECCB) and annual contributions from member countries.

Product overview

CARTAC is a regional technical assistance center under the IMF providing capacity development services to 23 Caribbean countries. The organization offers a portfolio of six core technical assistance service areas: Public Finance Management, Tax and Customs Administration, Financial Sector Supervision & Financial Stability, Debt Management, Economic and Financial Statistics, and Macroeconomic Programming Analysis. These services are delivered through advisory missions, hands-on training, workshops, seminars, professional attachments, and policy development support. The portfolio also includes supplementary offerings such as internship programmes, published reports (annual reports, programme documents, evaluation reports), and work plans that document planned and completed activities.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• Public Finance Management (PFM) Technical Assistance Technical assistance to Caribbean government ministries of finance and budget agencies to enhance budget execution, expenditure control, and revenue collection monitoring; reform treasury systems; modernize cash and debt management procedures; upgrade financial accounts and reporting; implement GFS financial statistics classification; and formulate modern financial management legislation.
• Tax and Customs Administration Technical Assistance Assessment of tax systems and assistance with design and implementation of tax reforms; simplification of tax operations; preparation of legislative framework for tax and customs administration; implementation of more effective compliance control tools; and adaptation of customs operations to meet international agreements for Caribbean government tax and customs authorities.
• Financial Sector Supervision and Financial Stability Technical Assistance Technical assistance for Caribbean central banks and supervisory agencies to strengthen laws and regulations governing financial institutions and capital markets; enhance domestic and offshore bank supervisory procedures; regulate and supervise non-bank financial institutions including insurance, credit unions, and capital markets; implement international accounting standards; enhance corporate governance; and develop anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism financing laws and procedures.
• Debt Management Technical Assistance Technical assistance to Caribbean debt management offices on managing government debt cost and risk, formulating medium-term debt management strategies, preparing and implementing annual borrowing plans, reforming institutional arrangements, developing local-currency government securities markets, supporting green bonds and climate-resilient debt instruments, and producing comprehensive debt reporting.
• Economic and Financial Statistics Technical Assistance Technical assistance to Caribbean statistical offices to improve the quality of macroeconomic statistics including national accounts and price indices, balance of payments, external debt, and monetary and financial statistics; establish underlying basic data collection; provide guidance on concepts and internationally accepted methodologies; and develop compilation procedures and data dissemination.
• Macroeconomic Programming Analysis Training Hands-on training for Caribbean government economists and central bank staff in the preparation of macroeconomic projections and the analysis of policy options.
• Regional Workshops and Seminars

Named customers1 record

Segments1 record

Ideal customer profiles1 record

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Partnerships

Three partnerships are on record, tiered core and moderate.

• International Monetary Fund (IMF)coreStrategic or Co-development PartnerCARTAC operates as a regional resource centre of the IMF, headed by a Director appointed by the IMF. The IMF provides strategic oversight, quality assurance for technical assistance, and integration with lending and surveillance operations. All TA is backstopped by IMF headquarters.
• United Nations Development Programme (UNDP)moderateStrategic or Co-development PartnerUNDP collaborated with CARTAC and IMF on the Virtual Roundtable on Green Budgeting Practices in March 2021.
• IMF Institute for Capacity Development (ICD)coreStrategic or Co-development PartnerICD provides training in economic management to officials of IMF member countries. ICD collaborates with CARTAC on workshops and training delivery.

Scale indicators4 records

Recent moves8 records

Expansion highlights5 records

Broad incumbents

• Inter-American Development Bank (IDB): A prior funder of CARTAC and the principal multilateral lender to the Caribbean region. IDB delivers complementary PFM, tax administration and financial-sector TA alongside its lending operations, frequently coordinating with CARTAC missions on the same country clients.
• Caribbean Development Bank (CDB): A core financial partner and Steering Committee member of CARTAC. CDB is the regional multilateral development bank for the Caribbean and funds/co-delivers capacity-building activities that overlap with CARTAC's PFM, debt management and statistics mandates.
• World Bank: A prior funder of CARTAC and a major provider of overlapping public-finance, debt and financial-sector capacity support in the Caribbean. World Bank operates at a much larger scale across multiple lending and TA modalities, making it both a partner and a competitive incumbent for the same member-country mandates.
• International Monetary Fund — Institute for Capacity Development (ICD): ICD is CARTAC's parent-institution capacity unit and collaborates directly on workshops and training delivery. ICD sets the global methodology and curriculum that CARTAC operationalises regionally, making it the closest institutional incumbent and upstream knowledge provider.

Direct peers

• PFTAC (Pacific Financial Technical Assistance Centre): IMF Regional Technical Assistance Centre for the Pacific. PFTAC delivers the same six-pillar TA portfolio (PFM, tax/customs, financial sector supervision, debt management, statistics, macro programming) to Pacific island economies — a structurally analogous client base to CARTAC's Caribbean SIDS members.
• SARTTAC (IMF South Asia Regional Technical Assistance Centre): IMF Regional Technical Assistance Centre for South Asia. Multiple CARTAC advisors (Rodger Sceviour, Christian Johnson, Lesley Fisher) previously served at SARTTAC, and both centres deliver the same IMF-standard capacity development services to government finance ministries and central banks.
• AFRITAC West Africa (IMF Regional Technical Assistance Centre for West Africa): One of three IMF Regional Technical Assistance Centres covering sub-Saharan Africa. AFRITAC West delivers the same donor-funded, six-pillar TA model to West African finance ministries and central banks, and competes with CARTAC for the same finite pool of qualified resident advisors.
• METAC (IMF Middle East Regional Technical Assistance Centre): IMF Regional Technical Assistance Centre for the Middle East. METAC operates the same capacity-development model under IMF headquarters oversight as CARTAC, serving member country ministries of finance and central banks across the Middle East.
• CAPTAC-DR (IMF Regional Technical Assistance Centre for Central America, Panama and the Dominican Republic): One of the other IMF Regional Technical Assistance Centres, covering Central America, Panama and the Dominican Republic. CARTAC staff routinely rotate from and to CAPTAC-DR (e.g., Selvin Lemus Martinez), and the two centres deliver the same six-pillar TA model in adjacent Latin American and Caribbean jurisdictions.

Others

• United Nations Development Programme (UNDP): UNDP partnered with CARTAC and the IMF on the Virtual Roundtable on Green Budgeting Practices in March 2021 and provides complementary governance and capacity-development programming in the Caribbean, positioning it as a thematic peer in adjacent capacity-development work.

Market position

Strengths4 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat4 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights6 records

Customer concentration

• Facebookfacebook.com/cartacbarbados.html
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/caribbean-regional-technical-assistance-centre-cartac-

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles14 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

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M&A

Investments

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Frequently asked questions about Caribbean Regional Technical Assistance Centre (CARTAC)