Aubyn Hill joins call for better bank rates
KINGSTON, Jamaica — Deputy President of the Senate, Senator Aubyn Hill, says he supports Minister of Finance and the Public Service Audley Shaw’s call for banks to reduce the spread between interest on current account deposits/fixed deposits and average lending rates to commercial clients.
Hill, a former banker, was opening the 2016/17 State of the Nation debate in the Senate today (Friday) under the theme “The State of the Nation has improved — and is improving”..
He said that having noticed the “good and improving developments” in the relationship between banks and their clients, he has to support the call of the Minister of Finance for banks to find ways to reduce the significant spreads between the zero per cent they pay on current account deposits, and less than two per cent, in many instances, on fixed deposits, and the average 15.31 per cent lending rate to commercial clients, recorded in the Bank of Jamaica’s survey.
“The lending rates to entrepreneurs and individuals are often higher than those recorded in the Bank of Jamaica (BOJ) survey. Economic growth, of the sustained and robust variety, will need to be supported by lower bank interest rates, and therefore lower spreads by commercial banks,’ Senator Hill said.
The debate will continue next week in the Senate.
Balford Henry