KAMPALA, Uganda:

THE GOVERNMENT will not be launching a 1990s style rescue package for investors who lose their money in any of the myriad of investment schemes springing up in Jamaica in recent times.

Speaking in an interview with The Gleaner at the end of the Commonwealth Summit at the Munyonyo Resort on Lake Victoria, just outside Kampala, Prime Minister Bruce Golding issued a stern warning: "The protection that is provided through the deposit insurance scheme and so on don't apply and therefore we have taken great care to make the public aware that when you put your money in these enterprises you are taking a risk, you are on your own!"

Mr. Golding said the Government was concerned about the lack of information but does not believe the current problems being experienced by some of these investment schemes will adversely affect the financial sector.

He said he has given instructions to the agencies with oversight responsibilities to make sure the regulated institutions are safe.

Mr. Golding noted that the government was awaiting a court ruling next month to determine whether these transactions breached any regulations and what course of action it could take.

The judgment, Mr Golding argued, "will help to define whether or not the law as it now exists gives the government any power to intervene".

Careful about regulating

But the Prime Minister suggested that the government has to be careful about regulating so "that we don't over-reach".

He pointed to laws governing deposit-taking institutions adding that "we don't want to regulate so that people can't do business without getting government permission."

Last week it emerged that several commercial banks had taken a decision to report as suspicious, all funds that come to them through what they describe as "unregistered schemes", as allowed under the Money Laundering Act. Such a move is believed to be having adverse effects on the operations of these unlicensed schemes.

However, in a statement yesterday, the Jamaica Bankers Association (JBA) said it has never discussed the relationship between Cash Plus and any member institution.

"We have never discussed or agreed to shut down anyone's business," the JBA said.

The JBA said claims that the banks conspired against "unregistered" investment schemes were without foundation.

It also denied charges that the JBA had a special meeting recently to "conspire" against the investment schemes.

The JBA has dismissed suggestions that banks have been closing the accounts of investments schemes to avoid competition.