Senate Approves Transfer Of All Assets Of Jamaica Development Bank

All assets of the Jamaica Development Bank (JDB) are to be transferred to the Development Bank of Jamaica (DBJ) Limited.

This will be done in exchange for the issuance of shares in the DBJ to the Accountant General.

The Jamaica Development Bank (Repeal) Act 2022, which will facilitate this change, was passed in the Senate on Friday (June 24).

Minister of Industry, Investment and Commerce, Senator the Hon. Aubyn Hill, who piloted the Bill, said it is “really changing the name of one institution ,which was established in 1969, and that’s the Jamaica Development Bank… that will be repealed and the new name will be the Development Bank of Jamaica”.

“All goodwill, rights, interests, property – contingent and prospective property of every kind, whether tangible or intangible…all that is being moved into the new entity called the Development Bank of Jamaica,” he said.

The legislation also facilitates the transfer of the liabilities of the JDB to the Government of Jamaica; transfers the functions performed by the Board of Directors of the JDB to the Board of the DBJ; and provides for the exemption of transfer tax and stamp duty that would otherwise be applicable to the transfer or disposal of assets by the DBJ.

The DBJ was created in April 2000 from the merger of the National Development Bank Limited and the Agricultural Development Credit Bank. Consequent on this merger, the affairs of the JDB became the purview of the DBJ.

The Jamaica Development Bank (Repeal) Act 2022 now seeks to complete the dissolution process.

The Bill was passed in the House of Representatives on June 7.