Former Minister of Finance Dr Omar Davies has staunchly defended the establishment of the Financial Sector Adjustment Company (FINSAC).

Taking centre stage at yesterday's session of the FINSAC Commission of Enquiry, Davies said the only thing he regretted during the period was trusting some of the players in the banking industry to deliver on the promises they made during the financial crisis of the mid-1990s, which dealt a heavy blow to the Jamaican banking and insurance sectors.

"In retrospect, if there is one error, it was the deal we struck with attempting to work with some of the institutions," Davies said during the enquiry at The Jamaica Pegasus hotel in New Kingston. "Mr (Don) Crawford (head of Century National Bank) never kept a single commitment. When a group of local owners, they call themselves the 'Owners Club' ... they came to us with a proposal and we thought they were going to introduce capital and we thought we were close to a solution, and at the last minute Mr Crawford said they were trying to 'steal our bank' and the whole thing collapsed."

Davies said some of the individuals who were in the Owners Club have sold the notion that they have been robbed and he called for them to appear at the commission and tell the truth.

Prime objective

Davies, who headed the Ministry of Finance from 1993 to 2007, said FINSAC was the most viable option to deal with the crisis.

In a prepared statement, Davies declared "The prime objective in establishing FINSAC was to allow for the orderly intervention in the failed institutions to prevent a total loss of confidence in the financial system, to preserve the savings, insurance policies and pension funds of the public."