Business Briefs
Published:Wednesday | August 5, 2020 | 12:09 AM
JSE, IDB sign support agreement for social exchange
The Inter-American Development Bank,IDB, is giving grant support of US$420,000 towards the Jamaica Social Stock Exchange, the JSSE, a unit of the Jamaica Stock Exchange, JSE.
The funds will support a US$910,000 project spearheaded by the JSE, dubbed ‘Innovating Social Sector Financing’, to assist social organisations raise capital via the JSSE. The project was launched Tuesday at the same ceremony where the grant agreement was signed between the development bank and the JSE.
Social enterprises successful at raising capital will eventually get the opportunity to list their ventures on the JSSE, a unit first launched by the JSE in January 2019.
COK commissions new banking platform
In its move towards digital services, COK Sodality Co-operative Credit Union went live with its new banking platform on Tuesday.
The system was developed on COK’s behalf by Smart Solution of Canada. Its services are accessible both from desktop computers and mobile devices. It’s known as the Smart Solution Universa Premier Digital Core Banking Suite.
“This will be our third upgrade in three decades,” said COK Sodality CEO Aloun Ndombet-Assamba in a press release. It replaces the FIN 2000 platform, which COK said had become increasingly unstable as its membership grew beyond 250,000, despite modifications over time.
Universa was commissioned after two years of development and testing.
Mexican remittances sturdy despite virus
Money sent home by Mexican migrants has risen by 10.5 per cent in the first six months of 2020, despite the coronavirus pandemic, Mexico’s central bank reported Monday.
Migrants sent home about US$19 billion in money, known as remittances, between January and June, compared to US$17.25 billion in the same period last year.
Migrants broke a record in March when they sent home US$4 billion in one month. In June, they were unable to keep up that torrid pace but still remitted US$3.35 billion.
That was much better than other countries which have seen drops in remittances because of job losses or reductions in hours due to the coronavirus pandemic.