THE Economy and Production Committee of the House of Representatives wants the Consumer Affairs Commission (CAC) to be empowered to make recommendations to the Bank of Jamaica, based on customer complaints against financial institutions.

It is one of the recommendations being made by the committee in its report to the House of Representatives.

The committee, which yesterday again deliberated the charges and fees to customers for banking transactions, also included in its report a suggestion to have the CAC empowered to make recommendations, based on complaints, to the regulator.

Government member Mikhail Phillips was adamant that with an enforceable banking code about to take effect, it was necessary to enhance the CAC’s authority. “When you look at the banking sector (and) the amount of customers, it is one of the largest industries in Jamaica. As it stands now, if I have a complaint with a bank, the CAC or the BOJ will then send me back to the same bank that I have the issue with,” he argued.

Phillips added that even with an enforceable code of conduct, the Bank of Jamaica (BOJ) has made it clear that it will not be hearing individual complaints because that is not its role.

Government member Fitz Jackson agreed that since the central bank as the regulator would not intervene in individual cases, the CAC should be made more effective by gleaning information regarding breaches and make submissions to the regulator.

“The CAC, primarily, is about consumer protection, and banking (services) is just one of them. They would be required to bring any breach to the regulator for enforcement, so they have a role to play to ensure that what is to be done is in the interest of the consumer…,” Jackson argued.

Chief Executive Officer of the CAC Dolsie Allen told the Jamaica Observer that the commission does in fact handle financial services complaints, but that persons may be unaware that they can come forward with these types of complaints.

“Those (complaints) that come have been resolved in short order,” she said.

However, Allen noted that cases that cannot be resolved outside of court would pose a challenge as the Consumer Protection Act does not make provision for complaints related to the financial sector.

Allen said the CAC would welcome any move to strengthen consumer protection.

Last year 40 complaints against financial institutions were lodged with the CAC. These, she said, accounted for or 2.5 per cent of the total number of complaints made to the agency.

With the deliberations on the Bank of Jamaica report on the fee income of commercial banks now complete, committee chairman Karl Samuda said the committee intends to table its report in the House towards the end of February.

The report was commissioned after Jackson, in a private member’s motion in 2013, called for bank fees to be fully investigated and for the BOJ to submit a report to the committee on the charges imposed on customers by banks and credit unions up to October 31, 2013.