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KINGSTON, Jamaica — Jamaica’s leading insurance industry representative body, the Insurance Association of Jamaica (IAJ), has announced plans to host its flagship Business Conference across April 20 and 21, 2026. The upcoming event, centered on the forward-looking theme “Charting the Future Together – Strengthening the Insurance Ecosystem”, is set to unite a diverse cross-section of industry stakeholders, from top sector leaders and regulatory officials to government policymakers and pioneering tech innovators, all aligned to examine the evolving trajectory of Jamaica’s domestic insurance industry.

Hosted at Kingston’s renowned Pegasus Hotel, the two-day gathering will dive into the most pressing strategic priorities currently shaping the sector’s development. Key topics on the agenda include advancing modern risk management protocols, rolling out more effective industry-wide fraud prevention frameworks, and accelerating inclusive digital transformation across all segments of the local insurance market.

As the official umbrella organization for Jamaica’s insurance sector, the IAJ has long held a core role in upholding strict ethical operating standards, fostering collaborative action across industry players, and elevating public understanding of insurance as a foundational pillar of household financial protection, national disaster resilience, and sustained long-term economic growth for the country.

“The IAJ Business Conference has established itself as a vital platform for driving collaborative dialogue and targeted action across every corner of our sector,” noted Everton McFarlane, Executive Director of the IAJ, in an official press release issued Wednesday. “Against a backdrop where both local households and businesses face growing exposure to financial volatility and climate-related environmental risks, it is more critical than ever that we strengthen cross-sector collaboration, embrace innovative solutions, and reinforce the defensive systems that protect Jamaica’s economy.”

The conference agenda will feature a lineup of high-profile keynote addresses and panel discussions covering a range of timely issues, from the growing economic burden of insurance fraud to much-needed regulatory reform, and the integration of emerging digital technologies to boost operational efficiency and elevate customer experience for policyholders.

Confirmed featured speakers bring a wealth of cross-sector expertise to the event. They include Courtney Campbell, President and Chief Executive Officer of VM Group, who will deliver insights on how technology adoption and purpose-driven leadership can strengthen the national insurance ecosystem; Sanya Goffe, a partner at leading Jamaican law firm Hart Muirhead Fatta, who will share perspectives on building a robust, sustainable national pension ecosystem; Matthew Samuda, Jamaica’s Minister of Water, Environment and Climate Change, who will address the growing urgency of climate risk management and industry-wide sustainability adoption; and Steven Whittingham, Chairman of the Jamaica Stock Exchange and CEO of GK Financial Group, who will draw on his experience leading GraceKennedy’s regional strategic expansion and company-wide digital transformation.

Beyond the main keynote and plenary sessions, targeted breakout workshops will offer attendees the chance to explore actionable, practical strategies for upgrading enterprise risk management frameworks, enhancing AI-powered fraud detection systems, and leveraging cutting-edge digital tools to deepen customer engagement and streamline core operational performance.

In addition to structured educational and discussion sessions, the conference is designed to create extensive opportunities for strategic networking and cross-stakeholder partnership building, bringing together public sector regulators and policymakers together with private sector industry leaders to build a more coordinated, adaptive, and resilient national insurance ecosystem for Jamaica.

When the Bank of Jamaica (BOJ) began rolling out monetary easing to counter slowing growth and falling inflation, policymakers expected lower policy rates to trickle down to households and businesses in the form of cheaper borrowing costs. Instead, a growing disconnect between central bank policy and real market conditions has exposed deep structural flaws in the country’s credit transmission mechanism, leaving policy stimulus trapped within the financial system.

Between May 2025 and February 2026, the BOJ cut its benchmark policy rate twice: first from 6% to 5.75% as inflation cooled, then again to 5.5%, before holding rates steady in March 2026. The pause came as global volatility rose, driven by spiking international commodity prices and escalating geopolitical tensions that created new uncertainty for Jamaica’s economic outlook.

In line with expectations, commercial banks passed rate cuts through to depositors: average deposit rates dropped from 2.7% to 2.1% over the easing cycle. But for borrowers, the story was vastly different. Far from falling alongside policy rates, average commercial lending rates actually ticked up, rising from 11.8% to 11.9% and staying largely stagnant even as funding costs for banks declined.

This divergence has widened the long-recognized monetary policy transmission gap in Jamaica, with the benefits of lower interest rates never reaching the real economy. Instead of passing cheaper funding on to consumers and firms, financial institutions have absorbed the extra margin from lower deposit costs, leaving borrowing conditions unchanged at best.

BOJ officials have repeatedly highlighted the structural barriers that block pass-through. In public statements and policy reports, the central bank has pointed to rigidities in domestic credit pricing, most notably the large share of fixed-rate loans on bank balance sheets that can only be repriced very slowly after policy shifts. These rigidities are now directly shaping credit outcomes across the economy.

Data from the BOJ’s 2025 Financial Stability Report confirms that even after repeated rate cuts, lending activity remains well below historical trends. The credit-to-GDP gap stayed negative through the end of 2025, a signal that credit expansion is not keeping pace with the long-term trajectory of the economy. While loan growth has stayed in positive territory, the central bank described overall pressures in the financial cycle as “muted,” confirming that lower policy rates have not spurred a broad, economy-wide expansion in borrowing.

This pattern has persisted into 2026, according to the latest available data. Private sector credit growth slowed to 6.9% in January 2026, down from 8% the previous month, with both household and business lending seeing a uniform moderation.

The most striking part of this stagnation is that it comes as Jamaican commercial banks are operating from a position of unusual financial strength. In 2025, total assets of deposit-taking institutions grew 9.1% to hit 3.06 trillion Jamaican dollars, fueled by a 12.7% jump in total deposits. Liquidity levels far outpace regulatory requirements: the sector’s liquidity coverage ratio stands at 194.1%, nearly double the minimum regulatory threshold. Capital adequacy also improved, rising to 14.8% across the sector, well above regulatory benchmarks.

Despite strong balance sheets and abundant low-cost funding, banks have remained deeply cautious about expanding lending. Instead of extending new credit to households and firms, institutions have opted to allocate extra capital to liquid assets and low-risk investments, locking policy stimulus within the financial sector rather than putting it to work in the real economy.

Even as banks hoard liquidity, early signs of stress are starting to emerge in some segments of bank loan portfolios. Consumer non-performing loan ratios ticked up over 2025, even as mortgage delinquencies fell, pointing to uneven financial pressure across different household income groups. Corporate lending trends are similarly mixed, with credit growth varying widely across industries and no evidence of a broad-based increase in business investment borrowing.

Beyond slowing credit growth, the BOJ has also flagged emerging risks in asset markets. Residential real estate prices have continued to outpace rental growth significantly, a trend that raises concerns about potential overvaluation. If prices correct back to sustainable levels, the BOJ warns that the adjustment could send shocks through the financial system via credit and collateral channels, as falling property values erode the value of security backing existing loans.

Overall, the BOJ assesses systemic vulnerabilities in the banking sector as moderate, with risks concentrated in exposure to credit and interest rate volatility. The broader financial system remains resilient overall, but the persistent transmission gap has created a challenging policy dynamic for the central bank.

The combination of strong bank balance sheets, abundant liquidity, and stagnant lending rates confirms that monetary easing is not reaching its intended targets. This dynamic erodes the effectiveness of BOJ policy at a moment when policymakers are already walking a tightrope, balancing lingering inflation risks against slowing domestic growth and rising uncertainty from global markets.

To address these structural constraints, the BOJ has begun rolling out targeted reforms to improve credit market functioning. These include a new electronic know-your-customer framework to reduce barriers to opening new accounts, planned account portability rules to make it easier for customers to switch providers, and measures to increase competition among financial institutions. The reforms are designed to reduce frictions in the market and speed up the pass-through of policy changes to both deposit and lending rates.

Even with these reforms in motion, the disconnect between cheaper funding and accessible credit remains in place. For now, policy has brought lower money costs — but easier access to credit for Jamaican households and businesses remains out of reach. The experience makes clear that rate adjustments alone may not be enough to stimulate borrowing and growth without deeper, systemic changes to how credit is priced and allocated across the economy.

Against a backdrop of global accelerating digitization of financial transactions, Jamaica’s payment ecosystem has defied widespread expectations of a rapid shift away from physical currency. Newly released data from the Bank of Jamaica’s 2025 Financial Stability Report reveals that cash still maintains an unshakable hold over the country’s everyday economic activity, even as digital payment networks continue their steady expansion across the island.

The figures paint a clear picture of lopsided growth between cash and electronic transactions over the 12-month period ending December 2025. The total value of withdrawals from automated banking machines (ABMs) across Jamaica jumped 44% year-over-year, surging from $76.7 billion in 2024 to $110.2 billion at the end of 2025. By comparison, growth in digital point-of-sale (POS) card transactions was far more muted: these payments rose just 13%, climbing from $89.8 billion to $101.2 billion over the same timeframe.

This data confirms that while card-based payments are still expanding, cash continues to account for a larger share of daily transactions across every sector of Jamaica’s economy. The shifting ratio of POS to ABM transaction value further underscores this trend: the ratio dropped from 1.68 in December 2024 to 1.46 in December 2025, a clear signal that cash usage is growing at a faster pace than electronic alternatives. Even as more businesses across the country now accommodate card payments, a larger volume of daily transaction value still moves through cash withdrawal infrastructure.

Notably, the expansion of digital payment options has not slowed the surge in cash demand. The total number of POS terminals deployed across Jamaica grew by 7% year-over-year, reaching 34,151 by the end of 2025 as more merchants opted to accept card payments. In stark contrast, the total number of ABMs across the country remained almost entirely static, rising by just two units to 784 from 2024’s total of 782. Despite no meaningful increase in the number of cash access points, total withdrawal values skyrocketed, a clear indicator of sustained, robust demand for physical currency from both Jamaican households and businesses.

The Bank of Jamaica confirmed that both cash and electronic payment systems operated without major disruptions throughout 2025, effectively supporting the full range of daily economic activity across the country. In its official commentary, the central bank noted that “these increases suggest sustained consumer spending activity and continued confidence in electronic and cash-access payment infrastructure.”

At present, cash and digital payment methods are growing in tandem rather than one displacing the other, but this delicate balance was tested in a high-stakes scenario last year. When Hurricane Melissa knocked out widespread electricity and telecommunications service across parts of the island, access to both digital payments and ABM cash withdrawals was severely disrupted. The outage exposed how heavily Jamaica’s entire payment infrastructure relies on consistent, reliable basic services to function.

In response to that event, the Bank of Jamaica emphasized that the post-storm disruption to ABM services “underscores the importance of operational resilience and contingency planning within the financial system infrastructure.”

Beyond infrastructure planning, the pace of future shift toward digital payments will depend heavily on expanding access to inclusive financial services for all Jamaicans. To remove barriers to digital adoption, the Bank of Jamaica has rolled out a series of policy reforms: it has launched an electronic know-your-customer verification system to streamline account opening, introduced rules that allow consumers to switch bank accounts more easily between providers, and implemented measures to boost competition among commercial banks. The overarching goal of these reforms is to lower barriers for Jamaicans to open new accounts, change financial providers, and adopt digital payment tools for daily use.

The central bank has also actively promoted its central bank digital currency (CBDC) to expand transactional access and improve the efficiency of digital payments across the country. Even with these concerted policy efforts to accelerate digital adoption, the latest 2025 data makes clear that cash remains the backbone of everyday economic activity in Jamaica for the foreseeable future.