Help is coming for bank customers aggrieved by high banking fees, as the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) has committed to establishing a new regulatory body to receive complaints.

In addition, this body will be charged with the mandate of ensuring that financial institutions disclose all charges, fees and interest rates and how these interest rates are going to be calculated. Finance Minister Dr Nigel Clarke made the announcement, as he squared off with his Opposition counterpart, Mark Golding on the issue of high banking fees at last Thursday’s much-anticipated political debate on finance and the economy.

In his rebuttal to Golding’s response to a question about what action would a People’s National Party (PNP) Government take to regulate high banking fees, Dr Clarke promised that “the JLP [in the next term in office] would introduce consumer protection with a new and separate Bill that will mandate institutions to disclose all banking charges. There will be an avenue for complaints so you could complain to that Pauthority, which can levy sanctions including restitutions and fines. That’s our plan.”

The finance minister took a swipe at the PNP, accusing the party of introducing a Bill in Parliament that, he declared, “amounts to price-fixing of banking fees in a market economy that they [PNP] say they are committed to.” While conceding that high banking fees is a genuine concern, which he identifies with, Dr Clarke argued that the PNP proposes to introduce measures that work against the very people they are trying to serve with price-fixing.

He argued that price-fixing will lead to disinvestment and people pulling out or not investing as much as they would otherwise, noting that in the end the Jamaican people will suffer. Current PNP Chairman Fitz Jackson tabled a Bill in Parliament some years ago proposing a regime to address the high banking fees being levied on customers.

This came after mounting public displeasure about high banking fees and service charges. The Bill, put forward by Jackson, was defeated in Parliament, as it did not get the support of the Government side.

In his response to the question Golding promised that a future PNP Government would revive that legislation, passing it into law so that customers are protected from excessive bank fee charges. As it regards the high fees being charged by banks, he admitted that, “It is inequitable how the banking system works because there is no basic package of measures that allow customers of banks to enjoy some freedom of fees on every single thing they do. It is not fair.”

Golding reminded Dr Clarke about Jackson’s legislation, which sought to address this unfairness, pointing out that JLP Members of Parliament blocked the proposed amendment to current banking laws.