Jamaica’s banking sector is facing a paradox: while it invests heavily in chip-and-PIN cards, real-time alerts and biometric log-ins, criminals are dusting off a century-old weapon—counterfeit cheques.
According to the Bank of Jamaica’s Financial Stability Report 2024, cheque fraud losses ballooned to J$401 million in the twelve months to March 2023, a five-fold jump that makes it the second-costliest scam after credit-card abuse. In value terms, nearly one-quarter of every fraud dollar now vanishes through forged or altered paper cheques.
“Card-cloning is harder every day; chips and two-factor checks are squeezing that avenue,” explained Deputy Governor Jide Lewis, who oversees bank supervision at the BOJ. “Fraudsters are pivoting back to paper where controls are weaker.”
Digital defences push crooks to analogue targets
Debit- and credit-card crime still dominates—56 per cent of all incidents—but tighter card security is clearly pressuring criminals to find softer targets. Overall, the banking industry recorded J$1.73 billion in confirmed fraud in the review year, almost double the pre-COVID peak. Cards and Internet banking combined accounted for J$1.225 billion, with credit-card fraud alone topping J$658 million.
Hotspots mirror Jamaica’s digital economy: Kingston, Portmore and Spanish Town, where online banking adoption is heaviest, see the greatest concentration of card and web attacks.
Banks rethink the cheque
At a recent shareholders’ forum, Audrey Tugwell Henry, CEO of Scotia Group Jamaica and president of the Jamaica Bankers Association, hinted at a wider industry rethink:
“Client demand for chequing accounts is already thin. Rising cheque fraud only strengthens the case for alternative payment rails.”
Insiders say commercial banks are weighing whether to curtail cheque issuance altogether.
Physical heists haven’t disappeared
Old-fashioned violence remains a threat. The BOJ tallied J$145 million lost in five cash-in-transit robberies and ten ABM attacks over the same period—proof that criminals still target armoured trucks when digital routes fail.
The next frontier: AI-enabled scams
While paper cheques surge, the central bank is looking ahead to synthetic-voice phishing, deepfake IDs and automated cyberattacks powered by generative AI. Global risk-platform Feedzai reports AI fingerprints in more than 40 per cent of detected fraud cases worldwide.
Lewis stresses the AI danger is mostly prospective for Jamaica—“Our smaller market and manual sign-off culture blunt the attraction for large criminal rings”—yet urges banks not to be complacent. International ransomware syndicates often test emerging economies before striking richer ones.
New rulebook for cyber resilience
To harden defences, the BOJ introduced its Standard of Sound Practice on the Management of Cyber Risks in March 2025. Measures include:
- real-time debit-card blocking (once reserved for credit cards),
- mandatory 24/7 fraud-monitoring engines, and
- participation in CIISI-JM, a new cyber-intelligence exchange linking banks, regulators and security services.
“Being attacked is inevitable; impact is negotiable,” Lewis warned at the BOJ’s recent monetary-policy briefing. “Our task is to shut every door—paper, plastic or digital—before the next wave hits.”
For now, Jamaican consumers may notice tighter ID checks when cashing cheques and faster alerts when card transactions look suspicious. Behind the scenes, banks are racing to secure both the oldest and newest frontiers of finance—ink on paper and algorithms in the cloud.
