Brian Wynter unapologetic about lengthy banking licence reviews
Published:Wednesday | February 19, 2014 | 12:00 AM
Central bank governor, Brian Wynter, said notwithstanding public interest in the outcome of applications for commercial banking licences, he would not discuss the issue publicly.
"Bank of Jamaica does not comment, and I think it's not useful to the bank to be put in a position to be required to comment, on any individual application - even whether there is an application or not - and we don't," he said.
Wynter, fielding questions at his quarterly press briefing on Tuesday, was asked whether Jamaica National Building Society and Jamaica Money Market Brokers could expect BOJ's early approval of applications for commercial banking licences.
"These matters are clearly of public interest, and there's nothing wrong with people wanting to know," he said.
But: "Having said that, we can state unequivocally that Bank of Jamaica will not, never has, and won't in the future, discuss any individual entity's business with respect to bank supervision and regulation, licensing, and so forth. The laws are quite strict about it, but also, good sense calls for that."
DUE CARE
As to the issue that regulators should open up the banking market to more players, the central bank chief said he, too, wants to encourage competition, but that as supervisor of the sector, he had a legal obligation to take due care in assessing every single case.
"We make no apology. We appreciate the concerns from different parties, but we think that we do a very careful job on matters like these. Whatever the benefit of haste, the potential costs far outweigh those benefits," he said.
"I don't believe that there is any weakness in the system that calls for any sort of public discussion about any specific name. And I'd like to discourage it, frankly ... because I don't think it can have any real positive outcomes that benefit anybody. And I can see some negative outcomes that could arise when you start to discuss the names of deposit takers in the context of licences."