By Lorraine Mendez
The Bank of Jamaica is seeking to assure members of the public, particularly stakeholders in the financial sector, that it will be able to effectively provide oversight of deposit-taking and non-bank financial institutions.
Finance Minister Dr. Nigel Clarke announced on Monday that the prudential mandate of the Financial Services Commission (FSC) with respect to the non-deposit taking financial sector will be fully taken over by the BOJ.
He also announced the appointment of BOJ Governor Richard Byles as the new chairman of the board of the Financial Services Commission.
BOJ says it is preparing its operational systems and personnel to effectively transition to the "Twin Peaks" regulatory framework over an 18 to 24 month implementation period.
Under this framework, BOJ will have responsibility for the micro-prudential supervision of not only deposit-taking institutions, including commercial banks, building societies, merchant banks and credit unions, but also non-bank financial institutions, such as securities dealers, insurance companies and pension funds.
The central bank says it is committed to strengthening its systems, upgrading
the competencies of its staff, as well as collaborating to synergise the appropriate technical skills at the FSC to fulfill the additional responsibilities.
The BOJ team will work closely with the management and staff of the FSC to facilitate the transfer of responsibility for market conduct of deposit-taking institutions to the FSC.
The FSC's new mandate will include financial consumer protection, in addition to retaining market conduct oversight for non-bank financial institutions.
