THE Bank of Jamaica (BOJ) is preparing new reporting requirements for the microcredit sector as it moves beyond licensing into active supervision of 114 institutions accounting for over 98.5 per cent of the sector’s reported $46-billion aggregate loan balance.

Since 2023, BOJ has conducted on-site examinations, desk-based off-site examinations and follow-up reviews and reports. These activities assess the adequacy and effectiveness of risk management, customer due diligence, transaction monitoring, and board and senior management oversight.

By March 2026, BOJ had licensed 114 institutions from 188 applications submitted. BOJ is now preparing anti-money laundering and countering the financing of terrorism (AML/CFT) supervisory returns for the sector. Draft return forms have been developed and are being discussed with the sector. The BOJ also intends to engage licensees on accompanying supervisory rules to be made under the Microcredit Act. This consultation is a key legal step in moving the forms and rules towards implementation.

“Once finalised and issued, the returns are intended to strengthen off-site monitoring by providing BOJ with periodic, structured data to support sector-wide risk analysis, entity-level risk assessments, trend identification, supervisory planning, and the timely identification of emerging money laundering, terrorism financing and proliferation financing risks,” the Government of Jamaica stated in its annual report on Form 18-K for the fiscal year ended March 31, 2026, filed with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission.

As part of Jamaica’s reforms to address deficiencies identified by the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), the microcredit sector became regulated under the BOJ’s oversight through the Microcredit Act 2021. The regulatory regime took effect in July 2021, with existing operators given until July 2022 to apply for a licence or cease providing microcredit services. By the end of 2022, the BOJ had licensed seven firms accounting for 50 per cent of the sector’s aggregate loan balances. It issued three more licences by March 2023, bringing the licensed share to 80 per cent.

The sector’s reported aggregate loan balance rose from $43 billion in March 2023 to approximately $46 billion in March 2024 and remained at approximately that level in March 2025 and March 2026. Its US-dollar equivalent moved from US$297 million in 2024 to US$290 million in 2025 and US$293 million in 2026, while its estimated share of GDP declined from 1.7 per cent to 1.5 per cent. Because the Jamaican-dollar figures are rounded, they do not establish that lending was unchanged. The filings do not explain whether the apparent plateau reflects slower growth, repayments, consolidation or a reporting limitation.