New acting FSC executive director takes up duties next week

Durrant Pate/Contributor

Bank of Jamaica (BOJ) Governor Richard Byles is meeting today with the Board of the Financial Services Commission (FSC) and the staff of the commission, in light of his appointment as chairman and with the Central Bank taking over its role of supervising the island’s non-deposit taking institutions.

At the same time, Byles has disclosed that the BOJ’s chief prudential officer, Kerron Burrell, who has been appointed to act as the FSC’s executive director following the resignation of Everton McFarlane.

McFarlane stepped down last week in the midst of criticisms that the regulatory body fell down in its supervision of brokerage house and investment firm, Stocks and Securities Limited in which billions of dollars have been defrauded from dozens of customers.

The defrauded customers include Jamaican sprint legend Usain Bolt.

Today’s meetings are to sensitise the staff about the new regulatory regime, articulated last week by Finance Minister Dr Nigel Clarke, in which the role of the FSC would be changed to focus more on standards and customer issues in the financial sector.

Byles under no illusion

Speaking at the Jamaica Stock Exchange 18th Regional Investments and Capital Markets Conference at The Jamaica Pegasus hotel in New Kingston on Wednesday, Byles told the audience of capital market players “I am about to embark of that process tomorrow (today) of meeting with the FSC board management and I will also meet with staff. I am under no illusion that this is a big challenge. I am under no illusion that many of the members of the non-bank financial institutions have some concerns that the BOJ may be a bit stricter than the FSC.”

The BOJ boss acknowledged that, as someone coming from the private sector, he was sensitive to some of these concerns.

He sought to ease some of those concerns, explaining: “At the BOJ, I am not going to be insensitive to the nature of the sector we are about to supervise. All that I can say is that, so long as you comply with reasonable rules, so long as we manage risks, I don’t see a problem. I think that we will have an excellent marriage.”

Byles said he would also be meeting with stakeholders in all the sectors that FSC had supervised.