Lynk, a new digital wallet, has entered the Jamaican financial technology space. 

The platform has been designed to bring a faster, safer and easier way to send and receive money using your smartphone. It is being launched by a new fintech company in the NCB Financial Group, heralding the group’s entry into this revolutionary technological space. 

Lynk has been approved for testing by the Bank of Jamaica (BOJ) which launched its Fintech “Sandbox” in March 2020, which facilitates monitored testing of cutting-edge financial technologies. 

Lynk is positioned to be amongst the first digital wallets to transmit the Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) once the BOJ has signed off on the testing and officially opens CBDC to the market.

While Lynk was inspired by leading international solutions such as Cash App, Zelle and Venmo, it was built by a largely Jamaican team and tailored for Jamaicans to solve multiple consumer pain-points under three main pillars – security, speed and accessibility.

Furthermore, with Lynk, an account can be created in under five minutes with no paperwork and no bank lines involved.

All interested persons will need to sign up are a smartphone and a government-issued ID.  

Lynk guarantees instant money transfers (sending or receiving) regardless of the time of day or week.

Already, Lynk, which is available on both Google Play and Apple App stores, has been a hit in Jamaicans on social media. Lynk has been one of the biggest trending topics on Jamaican Twitter spaces, with many praising the app for its user-friendly interface and ease of access.

As an added bonus, the app is offering J$250 for each person a registered Lynk user refers to the platform and $500 to invitees who install the app, which seems to have resonated with Jamaican Twitter as well.

Through Lynk’s cutting edge encryption multi-factor authentication and latest fraud prevention technology, the app ensures that consumers’ data and money are always safe. Importantly, Lynk will drive financial inclusion by opening its platform to all consumers regardless of who they bank with and allowing people without bank accounts to use the application.

Additionally, individuals that download the app will be the first to experience all that Lynk has to offer including special offers, exclusive deals, exciting new product announcements and app updates.

As such, consumers can expect the product to continuously evolve over the next few months of its rollout as incremental work is done to transform the way Jamaicans pay.

Lynk will embark on this open market pilot phase to actively engage with consumers in building the best digital wallet for them.

This pilot will give customers the opportunity to download the app to safely transfer money regardless of banking institution, as well as to purchase goods and services from a growing list of ‘Lynk’ small merchants. Lynk is giving its users the opportunity to share their unique feedback enabling the company to build an app for the future together with its customers. 

Lynk CEO Vernon James shared, “Lynk’s mission is to empower the Caribbean people to pursue their dreams by using technology to revolutionise finance. After rigorous product refinement of the Lynk app with our NCB family and other internal stakeholders, we wanted to share the experience with the wider population in what we call an ‘open market pilot’. Market feedback in this phase will enable the product developers to further tailor and refine the app in alignment with customer needs.”

NCB will be the first financial institution to partner with Lynk in this initial phase. At the core of Lynk’s mission is ‘powering the hustle of the small businessman’.

As such Lynk is onboarding merchants ranging from food and beverage providers, beauticians and small service providers and will be rolling out customized solutions to meet the complex needs of medium to large businesses.

Interested small businesses and sole proprietors can sign up to become a Lynk merchant and benefit from accepting instant, cashless payments using Lynk, with no transaction fees.