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Minister of Finance and the Public Service, Hon Audley Shaw, has said that fiscal consolidation and improved quality of governance are necessary preconditions to achieving investment and substantial growth in the Jamaican economy. Speaking in London Thursday at a Conference on Debt Management, sponsored by the Commonwealth Secretariat, Mr Shaw said that Jamaica's debt burden contributed to the country's lack...

Former insurance executive, Rev Ralph "Jim" Parkes, told the Commission of Enquiry into the 1990s financial meltdown on Tuesday March 29 that he is still unable to fathom why the Financial Sector Adjustment Company (FINSAC) failed to fulfill its mandate. “I left the industry in 1998, and I still can’t figure out why,” Mr. Parkes, who joined the priesthood after...

KINGSTON – Chairman of the FINSAC Commission of Enquiry, Worrick Bogle, explained Tuesday March 29 that retired Supreme Court Judge, Justice Henderson Downer, is not a member of the commssion, but its legal adviser. Mr. Bogle pointed out that following the removal of former chairman, Justice Boyd Carey, from the Commission, based on a court ruling, last September, a decision...

KINGSTON – Jamaica's Minister of Finance and the Public Service, the Hon Audley Shaw, says the Caribbean remains committed to being a vibrant partner in the Inter-American Development Bank’s (IDB) 'Decade of Latin America and the Caribbean (2010-2019)'. Mr. Shaw, who was speaking on behalf of the English-speaking Caribbean, at the 52nd Annual IDB Board of Governors’ Meeting’s 2nd Plenary...

KINGSTON – Repeated successes in meeting the quantitative targets under the Standby Agreement with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) have resulted in increased confidence in the growth prospects of the economy. This is reflected in the increased preference for Jamaica Dollar assets during the fiscal year, strong net international reserves (NIR) of US$2.17 billion and healthy gross international reserves of...

KINGSTON – World Bank Executive Director for Canada, Ireland and the Caribbean, Marie Lucie-Morin, has stressed the need for collaboration between private and public sector stakeholders in the Caribbean, to ensure effective enforcement of the regulatory regimes governing remittance transfers. This, she contends, is necessary to achieve an efficient and secure flow of remittances into the region, by mitigating factors...

KINGSTON – Former Jamaica Bankers Association President, Elon Beckford, told the FINSAC Commission of Enquiry into the 1990s financial meltdown on Thursday March 24, that the initial sign of trouble was the Bank of Jamaica's (BOJ) first intervention into a major financial institution in 1995. Mr. Beckford said that the intervention was a “game changer,” and most of the indigenous...

KINGSTON – Former Bankers Association of Jamaica president, Elon Beckford, told the FINSAC Commission of Enquiry into the 1990s financial meltdown on Thursday March 24, that the initial sign of trouble was the Bank of Jamaica’s (BOJ) first intervention into a major financial institution in 1995. Mr. Beckford said that the intervention was a “game changer”, and most of the...

KINGSTON – Former Bankers Association of Jamaica (BAJ) president, Elon Beckford, has denied that inefficiency caused indigenous financial institutions to fail in the 1990s, while the foreign-owned institutions survived the high interest rate regime. Using his management team at the Horizon Financial Services group then as an example, Mr. Beckford told the FINSAC enquiry Thursday morning March 24, “I challenge...

KINGSTON – World Bank Executive Director for Canada, Ireland and the Caribbean, Marie Lucie-Morin, says remittance flows to developing countries are likely to increase to US$374 billion by 2012. She says this is consequent on the resilience of the earnings of persons in the countries of remittances origin to the global financial crisis. Mrs. Lucie-Morin was addressing the opening of...

KINGSTON – Executive Director of the Financial Services Commission (FSC), Rohan Barnett is imploring investors to be selective in choosing where they invest their money. He also pointed out that long term investments tend to be less volatile and more growth oriented.  “If you are being promised a guarantee with extremely high short term returns that sound too good to...

Members of the FINSAC Commission of Enquiry had a private meeting Wednesday morning March 23, to discuss speeding up the enquiry to meet an April closing deadline. Chairman of the Commission, Worrick Bogle, told the media, following another aborted sitting on Wednesday March 23, that while the Commission is concerned about the slow pace, it understands the problems facing the...