TWIN PEAKS: YEARS AWAY

JAMAICA’S planned overhaul of financial regulation is likely to take years more to complete, outgoing Bank of Jamaica (BOJ) Governor Richard Byles has said, putting the Twin Peaks reform beyond both its original 18-to-24-month timetable and the Government’s subsequent 2026 target. Byles, who is scheduled to demit office on August 18, said the BOJ and Financial Services Commission (FSC) were close to submitting the proposed architecture to Cabinet. “Having brought it to Cabinet, remember now, really still we are at the beginning of the process,” Byles told the Jamaica Observer in an exit interview.

“The laws now have to be drafted… and the two Houses [of Parliament] have to debate it before it becomes law, so we do still have years of discussion and work to do on Twin Peaks, even when it goes to Cabinet and even if Cabinet says yes.” Twin Peaks was announced in January 2023, shortly after disclosures of an alleged fraud at investment firm Stocks and Securities Limited intensified scrutiny of Jamaica’s regulatory system. The Government said the new structure would be implemented within 18 to 24 months, pointing to a transition between approximately July 2024 and January 2025. In June 2024, then Finance Minister Dr Nigel Clarke told Parliament that implementation was expected in 2026.

He said a concept paper prepared by the BOJ-FSC Twin Peaks Steering Committee had been approved and the Cabinet submission was in its “final stages”, after which drafting instructions would be issued. More than two years later, Cabinet approval has not been publicly announced. BOJ said in June that the architecture would “soon” be ready for Cabinet; its latest Financial Policy Committee statement said only that progress continued.

It remains unclear how the concept paper approved by the then finance minister differs from the architecture Byles said was still being readied for Cabinet in 2026. Byles hoped the submission could reach Cabinet before its August break. He said much of the time had been spent obtaining comments from the agencies involved.

“Any institution, not just the Bank of Jamaica, who has had to get legislation passed has found that that process is very cumbersome. Although Byles described the difficulty broadly as part of the legislative process, Twin Peaks had not yet reached formal drafting or parliamentary debate.