President of the PSOJ P B Scott shakes hands with inductee Butch HendricksonGarfield Robinson

PB Scott, president of the Private Sector Organisation of Jamaica (PSOJ), and Gary “Butch” Hendrickson, chairman of the Continental Baking Company and this week’s inductee in the PSOJ Hall of Fame, have together made a call for the removal of the high minimum capital test (MCT) ratio used by regulators for local insurance companies, noting that reduction could release billions of dollars which could be put to productive purposes.

“The MCT for general insurance companies is 70 per cent higher than the next highest globally,” Scott, in his address at PSOJ’s Hall of Fame induction ceremony at the Jamaica Pegasus hotel on Wednesday, stated, adding that it restricts development.

“If we were to simply dial this back to 150 per cent from the 250 per cent, that alone would potentially release approximately $40 billion of capital to risk weight assets that would employ people and we would still be equal to Canada,” he proposed.

http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/business/Business-leaders-call-for-lower-minimum-capital-test-ratios_78630