Guidelines for the Administration of Monetary Penalties

Published: Thursday May 19th, 2016

Amended: Monday February 27th, 2017

The Banks and Trust Companies Regulation Act (BTCRA) and the Banks and Trust Companies (Administrative Monetary Penalties) Regulations, 2016 (“the AMP Regulations”) provide the Central Bank with a wide range of discretionary enforcement powers to address situations that give the Central Bank cause for concern. Specifically, the Central Bank has the power to impose administrative monetary penalties (“penalties”) against any supervised financial institution (SFI) or person in respect of their contravention of any provision of the BTCRA, any Regulations made under that Act, any direction issued or order made by the Central Bank or any condition and/or limitation imposed by the Central Bank. Administrative monetary penalties are monetary sanctions imposed by the Central Bank under statutory authority in respect of the matters indicated above, without the Central Bank having to go to court.

The Administrative Monetary Penalties Guidelines (“the Guidelines”) set out the procedures that the Central Bank will generally follow when it has cause for concern regarding the operations of a SFI or in the event of non-compliance by any person or entity with applicable legislation, orders, directives, conditions or limitations of the Central Bank.