The JMMB Group, during its annual general meeting, announced the roll-out of new payment solutions that are designed to meet the needs of key client segments including the ‘underbanked’ or those underserved by the financial services sector, and small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). 

These new solutions will include the launch of a remittance prepaid card for individuals and point-of-sale and scan-to-pay payment options for SMEs.

In making the announcement during the recently held annual general meeting (AGM), Gifford Rankine, general manager of digital services at JMMB Group, highlighted that the group’s digital journey is in keeping with its digitisation thrust to enhance client experience by providing an omnichannel experience and improve operational efficiency. 

Rankine noted that the pandemic has accelerated the acceptance of digital channels and as such, JMMB Group is seeking to better serve its clients by responding to their changing needs, preferences, and the changes across the industry.

Adding, “Will that mean that we will be closing all our branches, most certainly not, instead we are looking to serve our clients where they are, (with our digital offerings).” 

Continuing, the digital services executive detailed that currently, a selected group of SME clients are piloting its new point-of-sale terminals and its scan-to-pay payment solution, with a view of a full roll-out in the near term.

These payment solutions will allow especially smaller businesses to enable merchants to accept credit/debit card payments using various methods and, provide their clients with easier and more convenient ways of making payments in the market.

Keith Duncan, group CEO, outlined, “These payment systems (point-of-sales, mobile point of sales) as well as our corporate Moneyline are important to our revenue streams but most importantly meeting the needs of the client…this is a critical part of the whole ecosystem and where we are going as a group (in serving especially) the SME segment.”

“We want to be able to facilitate the growth of our clients in the same way (that JMMB Group, has seen its growth over its 30 years from a single establishment to regional presence). We want to empower clients along their growth path and hence we have been focused in the last 3 years in building out (solutions) to serve this segment (in a better way),” added Duncan.

As such JMMB’s SME resource centres, which operate in Jamaica and Trinidad and Tobago, were established to add value to its SME clients, through the provision of financial partnership, resources, innovative financial solutions and a network of SME professional resources, to support them throughout their businesses’ life cycles, thereby, providing the necessary support for growth, and filling the gaps that currently exist in the financial services sector.

As part of this build-out of solutions to serve SMEs and corporate clients, the JMMB Group, through its subsidiary, JMMB Securities Limited, has also launched its first private equity vehicle raising initially J$1.5 billion from investors to complement its own investment.

This investment vehicle will provide much-needed funding to largely mid-sized companies in need of equity funding to fuel growth and allow them to take advantage of opportunities while providing investors with above-average, risk-adjusted returns. This will allow JMMB Group to serve its business clients along its entire journey helping them to move from small to large.

These solutions build on the foundation that JMMB Group has laid across the Group, having introduced its Visa-enabled debit card, the recent roll-out of intelligent automated teller machines (ATMs) and the final leg of the standardisation of its banking platform across the region to drive operational efficiency and ensure that clients can have a ‘One Group, One Client, One Experience’.

Build-out of diversification strategy

Speaking about the deepening of its diversification strategy, Duncan revealed that it continues to explore inorganic growth across the region to either bolster or expand its current business lines, in a bid to serve the financial needs of clients.