Prime Minister Signals Major Financial Sector and Capital Market Reforms to Power Jamaica’s Post Hurricane Melissa Recovery
Prime Minister Dr. the Most Honourable Andrew Holness says the Government of Jamaica will pursue deliberate and far-reaching financial sector and capital market reforms to support economic resurgence, resilience and long-term national development as the country recovers from the impacts of Hurricane Melissa.
Speaking on January 20, 2026, at the Jamaica Stock Exchange’s 21st Regional Investments and Capital Markets Conference at the Jamaica Pegasus Hotel, the Prime Minister says this approach will be marked by lower public debt, strong external reserves and increasingly sophisticated domestic capital markets.
Prime Minister Holness emphasized that Jamaica’s improved macroeconomic fundamentals require a modern regulatory approach that protects stability while enabling growth.
“Today, Jamaica operates in a vastly different macroeconomic environment with significantly lower public debt, robust external reserves, credible and durable fiscal anchors, and deeper, more sophisticated domestic capital markets. The risks we face today are different. The instruments available to us are more complex, and the opportunities before us are far greater,” said Prime Minister Holness.
The Prime Minister underscored that regulatory reform will be purposeful and responsible, aimed at aligning oversight with evolving risk profiles and innovation, while positioning capital markets to play a more dynamic role in national development.
Dr. Holness stated, “It is therefore timely, deliberately, responsibly, and transparently, to revisit and modernize elements of the financial regulatory framework. Not to weaken stability, but to ensure that regulation is aligned with evolving risk profiles, increased market sophistication, innovation in financial products and instruments, and the imperative for capital markets to play a more dynamic role in fuelling economic resurgence and resilience. This is not deregulation, but smarter regulation for a stronger economy.”
Reflecting on Jamaica’s resilience in the face of repeated and overlapping shocks, Prime Minister Holness noted that Hurricane Melissa was one of several major disruptions the country has endured in recent years.
“We have been hit by a global pandemic, once in a hundred-year event, several tropical storms. Then we were hit by Beryl. Immediately after Beryl, unseasonal rain, which destroyed our road network. Three weeks of rain every day across the country. And then the following year, Hurricane Melissa, then drought, and we are still standing, still viewed with optimism,” said Prime Minister Holness.
In the meantime, the Prime Minister indicated that upcoming budget initiatives will reflect the new policy direction of strengthening capital markets, modernizing regulatory elements and ensuring the financial system can support recovery, opportunity creation and long-term resilience, while stability remains firmly protected.