Have Faith as Jamaica’s Banks Face a Test of Trust

• Jamaica’s banks remain profitable, stable and well capitalised.
• Rising fees are testing customer trust and patience.
• Regulators are tightening complaints and governance standards.
• Faith raises questions about fairness, stewardship and responsibility.

Jamaica is a deeply religious country and also an increasingly sophisticated financial market. Those two worlds often occupy different pages of the newspaper. On Sunday, churches talk about fairness, stewardship, responsibility and looking after the vulnerable. By Monday morning, the financial system returns to interest rates, capital ratios, fees, margins and shareholder returns. Perhaps the two conversations are not as separate as they appear.

The Bank of Jamaica said in August that the country’s banking system remained sound, adequately capitalised and sufficiently liquid. Earlier stress testing also found that financial institutions generally held enough capital to withstand significant economic and financial shocks. That is reassuring, but financial stability is only one measure of a financial system. Trust is another, and in 2026 the relationship between Jamaican banks and their customers is receiving considerably more attention.

Banks are making more money

The numbers are substantial. Deposit taking institutions recorded pre tax profits of approximately J$52.6 billion in 2025, up from J$39.7 billion a year earlier, an increase of roughly 32 per cent. Their overall profit margin increased from 11.3 per cent to 16.2 per cent, while return on equity rose from 11.3 per cent to 14.4 per cent.

There is nothing inherently wrong with banks making profits. Banks need profits to build capital, invest in technology, protect against losses, lend to households and businesses and provide returns to shareholders. The more difficult question is what constitutes a fair balance between commercial success and the interests of customers. That debate has become sharper as Jamaicans face higher charges for some banking services.

Fees are particularly sensitive because customers do not experience banking as an abstract financial system. They experience it through the amount deducted from an account, the cost of moving money, a mortgage payment, an ATM that does not work or the time spent trying to resolve a problem. Dean Jones, founder of Jamaica Homes, believes this is where the discussion about values becomes relevant.

“Faith in finance should not mean praying that your bank balance survives until payday,” Jones said. “It is really about whether institutions recognise that profitability and fairness do not have to be enemies. A strong financial institution should be capable of producing a return while still treating the customer as more than a revenue opportunity.”

The regulator is paying attention

The Bank of Jamaica is already moving in this direction through regulation rather than theology. In April, the central bank published proposals for tougher minimum standards governing customer complaints at deposit taking institutions. The proposed framework would require banks to acknowledge complaints within five business days, identify responsible complaints officers, provide final responses within prescribed periods and report complaints information to the regulator. Boards would also have greater responsibility for overseeing how complaints are handled.

That may sound administrative, but it represents an important change in thinking. A complaint is no longer simply an irritated customer at the counter. Repeated complaints can be evidence of a wider problem with governance, technology, product design or institutional culture. Bank of Jamaica recorded 443 consumer complaints in 2025. Account related issues made up 45.8 per cent of them, while fraud and impropriety accounted for 21 per cent. Loan related complaints represented about one fifth of the total. The preliminary complaint resolution rate improved to 84 per cent by the end of 2025, compared with 57.4 per cent a year earlier.

Consumers are also expected to receive more help comparing banks. The Government announced in March that the Bank of Jamaica was advancing plans for a comparison website allowing consumers to compare banking fees, charges and interest rates, alongside measures intended to make switching accounts easier. That matters because competition is one of the most effective forms of consumer protection. If moving your account is painfully difficult, dissatisfaction has limited commercial consequences. Make switching easier and suddenly good service becomes rather more valuable.

Where does faith fit into any of this?

Not in the regulations. There is no suggestion that Jamaican banking policy should become religious policy, nor that financial institutions should be operated according to any particular denomination. But the values associated with faith are already familiar in corporate governance: fairness, honesty, stewardship, accountability, restraint and responsibility to others. Strip away the religious language and many of those concepts sit comfortably inside a modern boardroom.

Former Bank of Jamaica Governor Richard Byles made a similar financial case when discussing corporate governance. Profitability was important, he argued, but institutions needed sustainable, risk adjusted profitability rather than short term returns that might eventually undermine resilience. That is essentially stewardship translated into the language of finance.

Jones believes Jamaica should be willing to have that wider discussion. “We are very comfortable talking about values in church, in families and in communities, but somehow when money enters the room we assume values must quietly leave,” he said. “They should not. Good governance is partly about asking not only whether something can be done, but whether it should be done and whether it remains fair to the people affected.”

The distinction is important. A bank cannot approve every mortgage application because it sympathises with the applicant. Lending money irresponsibly would eventually hurt depositors, shareholders and borrowers alike. Nor can pension trustees simply invest contributors’ retirement savings in worthy causes regardless of risk. Compassion without financial discipline is not responsible banking, but neither should commercial discipline require indifference.

The Jamaican mortgage makes the issue real

Nowhere is this tension more visible than housing. A mortgage may appear on a bank’s balance sheet as a loan secured against property. To the borrower, it is a home. Interest rates, fees, valuations, insurance requirements, deposits and affordability tests therefore have consequences beyond a spreadsheet.

Banks have legitimate reasons for assessing borrowers carefully. Jamaica has only recently come through another major hurricane, economic activity has faced disruption and borrowers remain exposed to movements in household costs and interest rates. Bank of Jamaica reported in May that private sector credit growth had moderated, with annual lending growth to individuals running at 7.5 per cent in the March quarter and lending to businesses at 5.1 per cent.

Responsible lending matters precisely because both sides carry risk. But responsible lending can coexist with clearer communication, sensible restructuring where appropriate, transparent charges and products designed around how Jamaicans actually earn and live. This is where values stop being philosophical and become practical.

Faith cannot replace regulation

There is also a danger in romanticising the idea. A chief executive describing an institution as Christian, ethical or socially responsible does not automatically make it well governed. Religious organisations themselves must account properly for money. Companies still require competent directors, controls, audits and regulation. Financial scandals rarely begin because somebody forgot to put an inspirational quotation on the boardroom wall. Good intentions need systems.

Jamaica’s financial sector is consequently moving towards stronger supervision, including Basel III implementation, new approaches to resolving troubled institutions, improved complaints procedures, greater attention to cyber risks and a broader restructuring of financial supervision. That is how confidence is protected. Faith may shape individual values. Regulation establishes the minimum standards everyone must follow. The two should not be confused.

A question of stewardship

There is nevertheless something timely about revisiting the relationship between morality and money. Jamaica has recently been debating the stewardship of church owned land, including whether some underused religious property might serve broader housing or community purposes. Those discussions ultimately revolve around the same principle: what responsibilities come with holding valuable assets?

For a church, the asset may be land. For a pension fund, it is workers’ retirement savings. For a bank, it is partly the confidence of depositors and customers. Ownership brings rights, but stewardship introduces obligations.

Jones said that principle may become increasingly important as Jamaica’s financial system matures. “Trust is one of those assets that never appears properly on a balance sheet until the day it disappears,” he said. “A bank can have excellent capital ratios and still damage its relationship with customers if people consistently feel they are being treated unfairly. The strongest institutions understand the value of both.”

Jamaica does not need its bankers to become preachers. It does not need ministers standing over mortgage applications with a Bible, nor financial regulators attempting to determine what constitutes virtue. What it does need is a serious conversation about the purpose of financial institutions in a small society where banks, pension funds, insurers and investment houses exercise enormous economic influence.

Profit matters. Capital matters. Regulation matters. But trust matters too. And perhaps that is where faith and finance have something surprisingly useful in common. Both depend, eventually, on people believing that the institution holding something valuable on their behalf intends to behave responsibly.

Follow Jamaica Homes on Youtube @jamaicahomes and Instagram @jamaica_homes and on Facebook @jamaicahomesnews Send us a message or email us at onlinefeedback@jamaica-homes.com or editor@jamaica-homes.com