The Bank of Jamaica (BOJ) has extended by two weeks the deadline for submission regarding proposed amendments to the BOJ Act, which seeks to afford greater protection to the financial sector by better targeting and sanctioning of unlicensed money service providers.

The deadline for comments, which expired on Friday, October 30, has been extended to November 13. The proposed amendments are in keeping with international best practice and require an increase in the fines and penalties on remittance companies and cambios for breaches.

The amendments propose to update and strengthen Jamaica’s oversight regime for cambios and remittance companies and to address the deficiencies highlighted in the Caribbean Financial Action Task Force (CFATF) mutual evaluation 2017 report on Jamaica. According to the BOJ, while it will examine all comments, it is under no obligation to incorporate all the comments in its proposed amendments.

A consultation paper states that “the amendments will provide the BOJ with the remit or powers to confront and penalise money or value transfer service (MVTS) providers, as well as licensees, who facilitate dealings with unlicensed MVTS by creating new offences to restrict persons not licensed to operate MVTS from using any name, designation, trade mark or advertisement that implies or leads the public to believe that the person is a licensed or approved MVTS provider”.

In addition, the proposed amendments will grant the central bank the power to, by itself, or through an agent, obtain a search warrant to enter premises where the bank has reasonable grounds to believe a person is carrying on the business of an MVTS without the necessary approval.

“The amendments will increase the penalties for non-compliance, as the current monetary sanctions are not deemed to be dissuasive,” the BOJ concludes in its discussion paper.

Already, the discussion paper has created some differences with financial analyst Dennis Chung and BOJ Deputy Governor Natalie Haynes exchanging opposing positions regarding aspects of the proposed amendments.

In a letter to the Jamaica Observer last week, Haynes pointed out that contrary to what Chung has suggested in his column in the paper, the rationale for amending the BOJ Act is not to “impose fines and penalties on remittance companies and cambios for breaches”, but in fact to protect the industry, in keeping with international best practice, by better targeting and sanctioning the fraudulently illegal practice of unlicensed money service providers.

She argued that the proposals do not include any changes to the existing process, which involves referring identified breaches of the Act to the director of public prosecutions for a ruling.

In his response, Chung expressed hope that further discussion on the consultation paper will take place at the level of organisations like the Private Sector Organisation of Jamaica and the Cambio Association of Jamaica, which both would have a more direct interest than he would.

Chung maintained his position that the applicable fines seem excessive and should really be a part of a defined process, whereby if the offence is committed then there is a warning first and these types of fines would be the end of a process.