In 2020 there were more than the 134 million electronic retail payment transactions worth in excess of USD 4 billion, which the Bank of Jamaica, BOJ, recorded for 2019. Electronic payment firms have mushroomed in numbers to cash in on the growing ecommerce business made even bigger by a more pronounced stay-at-home lifestyle brought on by the coronavirus pandemic. And the BOJ also has been encouraging the growth of the business it is now bent on bringing more firmly under its bank supervision and financial regulations powers.

Work on a legal operating framework for PSPs, which are not deposit-taking institutions, commenced earlier in 2021 and follows on the BOJ’s withdrawal of its guidelines for electronic retail payment services guidelines in early 2019. Deposit-taking payment providers are covered under the central bank’s existing bank-supervision remit. At the time of the 2019 guidelines withdrawal, the BOJ officials said the rules were not enough for supervision and enforcement related to the specific activities of PSPs. Proposed amendments to the Payment Clearing and Settlements Act are part of the banking regulator’s policy proposals and are expected to plug the current legal gaps.

The amendments are also intended to bring Jamaica’s laws on payment-services regulation in line with international requirements for payment oversight and anti-money laundering and combating financing terrorism supervision.