‘Educate customers about banking rules’

MANAGING DIRECTOR of JN Bank Maureen Hayden-Cater is urging financial institutions to be careful, and not to allow anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism financing (AML/CTF) regulations and standards to affect financial inclusion.

Speaking recently at the Jamaica Bankers Association’s (JBA) AML/CTF Conference at the Spanish Court Hotel in New Kingston, Hayden-Cater called for her colleagues to find creative ways to educate the Jamaican population about AML/CTF requirements in an effort to raise confidence in local banks, which she acknowledges has taken a battering in recent years.

“In the final analysis, we want to have confident customers, who are certain about the services they receive from our banks and other deposit-taking institutions,” she advised. “And the more confident clients are about banking, the more banking they will do, and also increase their demand for additional products and services.”

The JN Bank managing director said that although AML/CTF standards are necessary, financial institutions can and must do more to assist their customers to understand the reason for the requirements.

She said this will also assist in reducing some people’s need to borrow from non-regulated financial entities, which include those institutions that

make the process of accessing financing less onerous, but charge exorbitant interest on loans.

“If you talk to your customers

they will tell you, ‘I only have one form to sign at these other financial institutions’; however, when they come to the bank, they have a whole lot more forms to sign.”

“The AML/CTF standards are viewed as a burden to customers, who do not understand these laws and regulations. All they encounter are the forms they need to complete, and what seems to be intrusive information that they must provide, to access banking products and services,” she related.

“As simple as it may sound, many of these matters affect financial inclusion and efforts to increase savings in a country where savings are very low,” Hayden-Cater said.

Maureen Hayden-Cater (second left), managing director, JN Bank, makes a point to Christopher Pryce, member of the Jamaica Bankers Association’s (JBA) Compliance Committee, during the sixth annual Anti-Money Laundering/Counter-Financing of Terrorism...

Maureen Hayden-Cater, managing director, JN Bank, speaks during the sixth annual Anti-Money Laundering/ Counter-Financing of Terrorism put on by the JBA. The event was held at the Spanish Court Hotel, New Kingston, recently.