Finance Minister Omar Davies insisted yesterday that confidentiality in Jamaica's banking system remained intact, despite the recent leaking of bank records that seriously embarrassed the ruling People's National Party.

At the same time, Davies criticised persons who defend the leaker for ostensibly taking a stand on a perceived issue of corruption, suggesting instead that by hiding behind anonymity he or she was guilty of moral cowardice in an action that was based on political partisanship.

"There are those who are brave and and who say, 'I broke the law, punish me'," the Finance Minister told reporters at a briefing in the economy. "... Don't hide behind the mask of secrecy."

The matter of bank/client confidentiality is among the issues that came into sharp focus over two weeks ago when Opposition leader Bruce Golding revealed that Dutch commodity trader, Trafigura Beheer, had deposited the equivalent of J$31 million in an account at FirstCaribbean Bank, controlled by former PNP general secretary and information and development minister Colin Campbell.

The PNP has insisted the money was a gift to the party rather than payment to Campbell, although Trafigura has said it was paying the company in whose name the account stood for services rendered. It has been suggested that this was a common ruse used by donors to hide gifts to political parties.

Golding's revelation, including his circulation of photocopies of cancelled cheques written on the account by Campbell, caused FirstCaribbean to launch an internal investigation into the leak and to send a senior manager, Sonia Christie, on administrative leave.

The system is intact

"I want to give the assurance that the system is intact and that the breach which may have occurred is a one-off occurrence," Davies said.

Davies, who wrote to, and received assurance from central bank governor Derick Latibeaudiere that there was no systemic weakness in the confidentiality of Jamaican banks, argued that developments such as what hit the PNP could hurt confidence in the country.

"Any and every person could not just appoint himself or herself as guardian of what is the national interest, and competent to take arbitrary action to protect it." If that were to happen, he said, it would lead to chaos. "It (the leak) is dangerous and we must all condemn it," he said.