JN Money Services Limited, Jamaica National Building Society’s bill payment and remittance subsidiary, said since the acquisition of QuikCash Money Transfer in the Cayman Islands last summer, transactions from Cayman increased by 32 per cent. Meanwhile the value of money transmissions grew by 20 per cent.
“Our drive was to increase remittance services to the Jamaican population in the Cayman Islands, and the response to the service to date is a clear indication that there was need for us to consolidate our investment in that country,” said Leesa Kow, general manager of JNMS. “By doing so, we have become one of the dominant regional remittance companies.”
Last month, JNMS re-launched its Ghana Money Transfer brand in the United Kingdom after having entered the African remittance market in 2009.
Ms. Kow also said the addition of a travel referral service, which was brought on line this summer at its UK locations, has added new clients to the company.
“Transactions have grown significantly over the past year in most of our markets, resulting in a seven percent growth,” she said, underscoring this was a higher growth rate than the figures for the national remittance market.
The value of remittances throughout the JN Money Transfer network of branches and agents across Jamaica, the Caribbean, North America, the United Kingdom and Ghana has improved, recording a 6 per cent growth during the previous fiscal year, despite continued global economic woes.
“It has been a challenging year for many companies involved in money transmission; however, we have been able to achieve growth by consolidating operations on the one hand, and expanding on the other,” Ms. Kow said. “And we continue to explore opportunities to improve our services and expand our reach.”
Following a decline of 11.35 per cent in 2009, overall remittances to Jamaica increased by 6.38 per cent in 2010 and by 7.06 per cent during the first eight months of 2011 compared with the same period the previous year, according to the most recent data available from the Bank of Jamaica.
Remittances to Jamaica from the Cayman Islands, in contrast, fell by 17.14 per cent in 2010 and by 6.38 per cent in the first eight months of 2011, resulting from a sharp drop in the number of Jamaicans resident in Cayman.
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