Financial Services Commission celebrating its 10th anniversary - We have company

The Gleaner's Editors' Fourm is celebrating its 10th year and it has company. The Financial Services Commission (FSC), the integrated financial-sector regulator charged with protecting investors and promoting transparency in securities, insurance and private pension, is also celebrating its 10th anniversary this year.

Not only are both organisations celebrating 10 years, the inescapable link between communication and regulation enforcement has spawned a synergy resulting in The Gleaner's Editors' Forum magazine - Solutions. The FSC is one of the companies partnering with The Gleaner to produce it. The FSC sees it as a vehicle to reach investors.

"As the FSC marks 10 years of regulating the insurance, securities and private pensions industry, we would like to utilise The Gleaner's Editors' Forum (magazine) as another gateway through which we can present issues of relevance to investors and financial-industry participants," Nadene Newsome, communications manager, FSC, said. This she explained was "in an effort to foster greater understanding of the financial-services industry and its potential benefits to investors".

Warning for investors

The FSC replaced the Financial Sector Adjustment Company, which was set up to rehabilitate the financial sector which collapsed in the mid-1990s. But while FSC's mandate includes helping to ensure that investors receive all the information they need in order to make prudent investment decisions, it has a warning for them. They should not rely on any regulator alone to ensure that their funds are safe. They should, instead, embark on their own methods of protection.

"By far, the best way for investors to protect the money they put into investment instruments is to do research and ask questions," the FSC said. "The laws and rules that govern the securities industry are derived from a simple straightforward concept; that is, all investors, whether large institutions or private individuals, should have access to certain basic facts about an investment prior to buying it, and as long as they hold it."

In order to facilitate this, it is incumbent on companies to disclose meaningful financial and other pertinent information to the public, the regulatory body said. It added, that it was only through the steady flow of timely, comprehensive, and accurate information could people make sound investment decisions.

The FSC said it remained committed to development of the financial sector in Jamaica and would strive to successfully use its influence and its powers to promote effective corporate reporting and governance, and a balanced approach to risk management as part of the regulatory regime that encourages enterprise, investment, employment and the creation and preservation of wealth.