Phillips rejects claims of inaction on SSL during tenure
Published:Tuesday | February 25, 2025 | 12:11 AMKimone Francis/Senior Staff Reporter
Former Finance Minister Dr Peter Phillips says newspaper notices were published and strict monitoring done amid concerns at the fraud-hit Stocks & Securities Limited (SSL) during his tenure, dismissing as “disingenuous” Senator Abka Fitz-Henley’s comment that he did nothing to curtail the “problem institution”.
Phillips’ response comes as political rhetoric escalates over which administration should shoulder the blame for the multibillion-dollar fraud at the investment firm that was brought to public attention in January 2023.
The US$30-million fraud impacted more than 200 clients, including the elderly and athletics great Usain Bolt.
“We undertook all the actions that were recommended by the FSC (Financial Services Commission) which included close monitoring,” Phillips, who served in the portfolio from 2012 to 2016, told The Gleaner on Monday.
He added: “It is really disingenuous and quite frankly uncalled for, for any attempt on the part of anyone to suggest that there was any political or other consideration at [play] in the supervisory work that the FSC carried out during my tenure.”
A search of the Gleaner archives showed that the FSC, which supervises and regulates the securities, insurance and private pensions industries, published five notices against SSL between May and October 2013.
Four of those notices warned the public against conducting insurance business with SSL.
“The Financial Services Commission wishes to advise the public that Stocks &Securities Limited (SSL) is not licensed or registered by the FSC to conduct insurance business under the Insurance Act. The Insurance Act requires all persons soliciting or conducting insurance business to be licensed by the FSC.
“The FSC is reminding the public to ensure that the persons and organisations that offer insurance opportunities are registered to do so in Jamaica,” the notice read.
In an October 22, 2013 notice, the FSC announced that at July 19, 2013, clients in SSL had been transferred to JN Fund Management Limited, except for a small number of select sophisticated investors who hold bonds issued by SSL.
“As such, SSL continues to be regulated and supervised by the FSC in furtherance of its mandate to protect investors,” the notice, which invited persons to contact the FSC if they had queries, said.
Phillips said the FSC reported that it had concerns about SSL and instituted a programme “for close monitoring” and issued “strict instructions” for the investment firm to take corrective actions to deal with the breach identified.
“They monitored SSL over that period to ensure that those actions were undertaken. They put appropriate notices in the newspapers and they kept monitoring it. Subsequently they continued the programme and recommended further tightening of its supervision,” said Phillips.
“The Government changed, and if you recall a subsequent chairman resigned, reportedly in relation to the failure of a subsequent minister to act in relation to SSL,” he added.
Fitz-Henley, a government legislator, while speaking at a Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) meeting on Sunday in St Andrew Eastern, charged that the People’s National Party (PNP), which formed the Government between January 2012 and March 2016, failed investors.
“What them nah tell you, that in 2013, when Peter Phillips was finance minister and the PNP was in control of this country, the FSC warned them and tell that entity to suspend a critical part of their operation. And Peter Phillips and the PNP administration took no action to defend the investors of Jamaica in that entity,” he asserted.
The opposition party hit back on Monday, with Julian Robinson, its spokesman on finance, dismissing his claim.
Robinson said under the PNP Government in 2013, Phillips and the FSC took immediate action, issuing a directive requiring SSL to suspend critical activities due to breaches of the Securities Act.
He said that in contrast, the JLP administration, in 2017, discontinued proceedings to suspend SSL’s licence after the entity claimed compliance.
Robinson said the FSC lifted the 2013 restrictions based on SSL’s representations, as confirmed by former Finance Minister Dr Nigel Clarke.
“This decision occurred under the JLP’s watch, and the massive fraud at SSL, uncovered in 2023, followed this lifting of restrictions,” said Robinson in a media statement.
Robinson called for transparency and accountability in the SSL matter and questioned whether the Kroll Report has been released to the court-appointed liquidator to assist in tracking down the assets of the insolvent SSL.