Key Points:

Jamaica’s Deposit Insurance Fund (DIF) reached $47.5 billion at the end of 2024, up 15.2% from the previous year.

The DIF now covers over 96% of all deposit accounts in the banking system, with an average account balance of $343,150 as of December 2024.

The fund’s reserve stands at 8.1% of total insured deposits, within the Jamaica Deposit Insurance Corporation’s target range.

Funds set aside to protect depositors under the Deposit Insurance Fund (DIF), managed by the Jamaica Deposit Insurance Corporation (JDIC), reflected a balance of $47.5 billion up to the end of last year — 15.2 per cent above that of the previous year.

The updated figures contained in the latest issue of the Economic and Social Survey Jamaica (ESSJ), released by the Planning Institute of Jamaica (PIOJ), also indicated that the current balance of the DIF now covers over 96 per cent of all deposit accounts in the banking system.

“The average balance held in a deposit account, as at December 31, 2024, was $343,150,” the document noted.

“The DIF balance represented 8.1 per cent of the total estimated insured deposits in the banking system, relative to JDIC’s target reserve ratio of 8 to 10 per cent, an increase of 0.7 percentage points when compared with December 2023,” it added.

The fund’s balance, which has more than tripled in size since 2015 — when it stood at little under $15 billion — marks years of efforts aimed at promoting stability and confidence in Jamaica’s financial system.

Funded primarily by annual premiums from member institutions and investment income, the DIF was established under the Deposit Insurance Act of 1998 as part of the broader Deposit Insurance Scheme (DIS). Its primary role is to protect depositors in deposit-taking institutions (DTIs) regulated by the Bank of Jamaica (BOJ) by insuring deposits up to the current limit of $1.2 million per depositor in the event that a DTI becomes non-viable.

As at December 2024, membership in the DIS remained unchanged at 11 institutions, comprising eight commercial banks, two building societies, and one merchant bank. These include Citibank Jamaica, First Global, First Caribbean, JMMB, JN Bank, Scotia, Sagicor Bank, NCB, Scotia Jamaica Building Society, Victoria Mutual Building Society, and Cornerstone Trust and Merchant Bank.

Total assets held by DTIs at the end of the full year went up by approximately 1.5 per cent to total $2.8 trillion. Of this amount, $2.6 trillion was accounted for by the commercial banks and the other $206 billion for building societies.

The Bank of Jamaica (BOJ) in its 2024 Financial Stability report said the performance of DTIs last year was mainly driven by a 5.7 per cent increase in loans, advances, and discounts, which continued to account for just over 50 per cent of the institution’s total asset base.

“Asset expansion was also supported by the growth in liquid funds over the review period. In particular, DTIs’ holdings of liquid funds grew by 17.1 per cent to $484.8 billion at end 2024 relative to end 2023. This growth mainly reflected a notable increase in DTIs’ current account balances held with the BOJ,” the central bank further said, while indicating that the increase in liquid position was partly due to the heightened uncertainties associated with the protracted period of high interest rates.

As the financial landscape continues to evolve, deposit insurers are being called upon to remain agile even as they push to adapt to emerging risks and technological shifts.

“In doing so, the JDIC can continue to fulfil its mandate of safeguarding the interest of depositors while preserving the integrity of the global banking system,” a report from the International Association of Deposit Insurers (IADI) stated.