THE Bank of Jamaica (BOJ) has temporarily waived the penalties associated with ACH (automated clearing house) transfers above $1 million as some deposit-taking institutions (DTI) still have issues with crediting client accounts for RTGS (real time gross settlement) transfers.

The BOJ gave the update on Tuesday indicating that the $5,000 penalty applied to DTIs for ACH transfers above $1 million will be waived between December 15 and December 31. This move comes nearly a week after Jamaica’s financial sector adopted the ISO 20022 standard for RTGS and wire transfers. The transition from the Swift Message Type (MT) standard to the ISO 20022 standard (MX) became effective on December 15 but was delayed from the original November 2025 timeline as some banks were not ready for the transition after Hurricane Melissa.

“Some institutions are still having difficulties, not because of the IOS transition, but some of them had implemented a payment platform to support the ISO20022. So, that is some performance issues there, but we are working with the banks through that,” said Natalie Haynes, BOJ deputy governor for financial markets and payments systems at Monday’s quarterly monetary press conference.

Since May 2016, all electronic transactions above $1 million were required to go through the RTGS system less a $5,000 penalty be applied to the respective DTI for each ACH transaction over and above the threshold.

The JamClear-RTGS system is controlled by the BOJ while the ACH system is managed by JETS Limited, an entity owned jointly by seven DTIs. RTGS transfers can be done for any transaction value, but there is a charge to both the sender and receiver of those funds. ACH transfers are restricted to the $1-million threshold and only have charges for the sender.

RTGS transactions are the faster electronic transfer method but are usually done in a defined window specified by each DTI. ACH transactions are slower electronic transfers, but these transfers are handled in batches by each DTI via two daily windows or periods for processing.

Some DTIs indicated to their clients that their RTGS system update was done between December 11 and December 12 with all DTIs transitioning by December 15. However, there was a flurry of complaints by users on social media about the delay to have funds credited to recipient accounts after sending it earlier in the day or on a previous day.

The BOJ indicated on Friday that it was aware of these concerns and that it was actively monitoring the situation and was working with JamClear-RTGS participants to get a timely resolution to the matter. This was due to the implications for customers over delayed payments.

“This [ISO20022] global standard represents a critical modernisation initiative for payment systems in Jamaica and worldwide, as it is a ‘Universal Financial Industry Message Scheme’ geared towards improving payment efficiency and promoting interoperability among financial institutions, financial market infrastructures and end-users,” the BOJ stated in a December 19 release.

Some DTIs began restricting RTGS transfers for retail clients since last week due to the complaints from customers. CIBC Caribbean Bank (Jamaica) Limited updated customers at minutes to 2:00 pm on Monday that instant (real-time payment) transfers to CIBC Caribbean accounts was unavailable. The bank updated customers after 7:00 pm that the issue was resolved.

The JamClear-RTGS system processed over $14.6 trillion in transactions in 2014. According to the BOJ’s 2024 annual report, the JamClear-RTGS system processed 4.30 million transactions in 2024 with $34.9 trillion and US$3.3 billion in transactions. The electronic retail payment systems, which includes DTI proprietary systems, MultiLink, and ACH transfers, handled 157.8 million retail payment transactions valued at $4.5 trillion.

“Our cross-border payments infrastructure was strengthened through the upgrade to the SWIFT ISO20022 Message standard, facilitating a more data-rich payment ecosystem. The wider roll-out of SWIFT Global Payments Innovation (GPI) has provided clients with real-time visibility into their cross-border transactions, improving transparency and client trust,” stated CIBC Caribbean Bank Limited in its 2025 annual report.

— David Rose