We would like to thank you for your contribution and support throughout the year 2008 and wish for you and your loved ones a prosperous and productive New Year.

From the President’s Desk

FINANCIAL SERVICES COMMISSION(FSC)

The JSDA Officers will attend an introductory meeting with the FSC Executive Director on 21 January 2009.The following items will be included on the agenda for the meeting with the FSC:

·Unit Trust Issues

·National Payment Systems (CSD & RTGS)

·Foreign Exchange Transactions

·Issues related to the Sophisticated Investor

·Capital Standards (Margin R)

·FSC Fees

BANK OF JAMAICA (BOJ)

National Payments Systems

The BoJ has invited the JSDA to attend an emergency meeting on Friday, 16 January 2009 to address the concerns of the securities industry with respect to the National Payment Systems project and its implementation.A position paper documenting the issues and concerns with the payment systems was circulated to the membership.The BoJ will discuss solutions to the issues raised at this meeting.

The Business Environment Committee comprising Messrs Gary Peart, Julian Mair, Clinton Brooks, Phillip Armstrong, Lissant Mitchell and Joel Allen will meet to update the position paper based on the outcome of the meeting with the BoJ.

Members are encouraged to become more actively involved with the issues related to the project and its implementation and advised to escalate any further concerns to the Council.

ALTERNATIVE CAPITAL ADEQUACY MODEL

The JSDA has made a payment of J$1.0m to JMMB for the development of the Margin R Model. Members are urged to submit outstanding contributions towards this project as soon as possible.

JSDA PUBLIC EDUCATION PROGRAMME

Publication of Industry Data

A Sub-Committee comprising representatives of VM Wealth Management and FirstCaribbean International Securities will convene to formulate a template for the publishing of industry data in a simple balance sheet format.The template is to be provided to the Council for review.

Marketing Plan

The Marketing Plan has been scaled back somewhat based on the global financial situation and its likely impact locally.The Marketing Committee will be concentrating on planning the annual members’ luncheon and members are asked to submit the name of a potential speaker for consideration.

A media house has agreed to carry a summary of the market sounding report on a weekly basis.It has been suggested that with the publication of the summary, the full report could be made available to the public at a cost.This arrangement will provide for advertising space and members of the JSDA Executive Council will be asked to make themselves available to a specific reporter to provide comments on the report.Members are being asked to make their in-house research resources available towards this initiative.

BUSINESS ENVIRONMENT

The JSDA has provided data to ICAJ to justify the freezing of the price of global bonds.Members are urged to submit the required data to JMMB on a weekly basis in order to facilitate the generation of the yield curve as agreed with ICAJ.

The Business Environment Committee will provide a template for yield curve data input.Members are encouraged to populate the template each Friday and submit to JMMB.