Author: Dayton Outar
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Rethinking Financial Oversight: Jamaica’s Shift from Sectors to Twin Peaks
In January 2023, the Government of Jamaica announced that it is pursuing a “Twin Peaks” regulatory model for the financial sector. According to the Jamaica Information Service release dated January 26, 2023, the reform will modify the country’s traditional sector-by-sector supervisory framework, where different regulators oversee different types of financial institutions. Under the current system,…
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The Story Behind Jamaica’s Floating Exchange Rate
Today the Jamaican dollar moves freely in response to supply and demand in the foreign exchange market. This was not always the case. Jamaica’s current system—where the exchange rate is largely market-determined—is the result of a long transition from a tightly controlled foreign exchange regime to a modern monetary policy framework. For many years, Jamaica…
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Jamaica Simplified Know-Your-Customer. So Why Does It Still Feel Hard?
In 2019, Jamaica introduced simplified customer due diligence (CDD) through amendments to its Proceeds of Crime Act, Anti-Money Laundering (POCA AML) regulations. Customer Due Diligence is the procedure that banks must use before opening bank accounts for their customers. The goal was clear: to reduce on-boarding barriers (when opening bank accounts) and expand access to…
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Basel III — How Modern Banking Rules Make Banks Safer
After the 2008 Global Financial Crisis, regulators saw a clear problem: many banks looked strong but were actually fragile. They had: Basel III was created by the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision to fix this. Global Adoption Basel III is not a law. It is a global standard adopted by countries through their own regulators.…
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Why Basel Exists — The Origin of Global Banking Rules
Banking has not always had global rules. Before the 1970s, banks were regulated mostly within their own countries. As banks expanded internationally, this became a problem. A failure in one country could quickly affect others. In 1974, the collapse of a German bank exposed this risk. Regulators realized that banking instability could spread across borders.…