Capacity Development Session for the Oversight of the National Payments System of Jamaica

From April 21 to 24, 2015, in Kingston, Jamaica, the Bank of Jamaica, with technical assistance from CEMLA, organized a capacity development session for the oversight of the National Payments System (NPS). The purpose of this session was to develop the institutional capacity of the various stakeholders, financial institutions, financial market infrastructure providers and central bank staff, in order to establish the institutional framework for the data exchange and disclosure on the functioning of the payments and securities clearing and settlement systems. The session was composed of the following activities: 

  1. Training workshop with the participation of 16 officials from different internal departments of the Bank of Jamaica, to address issues related to the compilation of statistics on the design and operation of the NPS. 

  2. Sensitization workshop with the participation of 32 representatives of financial institutions, financial market infrastructure providers, and other relevant national authorities of Jamaica. The workshop aimed at raising awareness about the role of oversight of the National Payment System. In addition to this, attendees were presented to a standard methodology for the establishment of an institutional framework for data exchange and disclosure. Topics that were covered include: 

    - Retail and large-value interbank funds transfer systems 

    - Trading, registry, clearing and settlement systems for securities 

    - Payment Instruments 

  3. Bilateral meetings with the payment systems department of the Bank of Jamaica to characterize qualitatively and quantitatively the major retail and large-value interbank funds transfer systems as well as trading registry, clearing and settlement systems for securities existing in Jamaica, and also the various payment instruments used by the population. The aim of the meetings was to take stock on relevant information for preparing a public report called Yellow Book of Jamaica. 

The team of the Payment Systems Department of the Bank of Jamaica that coordinated this technical assistance, assessed it positively because it laid foundations for establishing a collaborative environment among the relevant stakeholders of the National Payment System of Jamaica to effectively exercise its oversight through the exchange and disclosure of information.