COMMENTARY: Our banks never even tried So we waited for more than two years for Jamaican banks to meaningfully pass on to consumers the benefits of the Bank of Jamaica’s monetary-policy easing. The prodding, the pleading, the prayers were never answered. Our dear banks simply held on to much of the benefit while lending rates barely budged. And this is not merely perception: the Bank of Jamaica itself acknowledged that deposit rates fell in response to its easing policy, while lending rates remained relatively unchanged, reflecting what it described as “structural rigidities in credit pricing.” In other words, the banks were quicker to reduce what they paid depositors than what they charged borrowers. They told us there was a lag time in transmitting lower BOJ rates to lending rates. Hold up! Let’s say that slowly: they told us there was a L... O... N... G... time in transmitting lower BOJ rates to lending rates. The reasons: of all sorts of market dynamics and blah, blah, blah! BOJ began cutting its policy rate in August 2024, reducing it from 7.0 per cent to 6.75 per cent. Further easing eventually took the rate to 5.5 per cent in February 2026. Now, roughly 25 months after that easing cycle began, BOJ has changed course. Effective September 29, 2026, the central bank raised its policy rate by 50 basis points, from 5.5 per cent to 6.0 per cent, amid mounting inflationary pressures. Annual inflation reached 7.9 per cent in August — the third consecutive month in which it exceeded the upper limit of BOJ’s 4 to 6 per cent target range. And you can bet your bottom dollar that if higher rates persist, our dear banks will have little difficulty remembering how monetary-policy transmission works when it comes to increasing lending rates. MORE EXPENSIVE LOANS If banks respond by increasing lending rates, borrowing for things such as cars, homes and education could become more expensive, particularly for new borrowers and customers with variable-rate loans. Wouldn't that be something? More than two years of monetary easing and we are told to wait patiently for the benefits to filter down. But now that the central bank has begun tightening, let’s see how long that “lag” lasts. And let’s not add the continued poor customer service at our banks and the ATM chronicles to the rage. Those are stories for another day. But will our banks ever grow a conscience, or, at the very least, borrow some fairness from the excess possessed by the devil?