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Easy money solutions for Jamaicans

Published:Sunday | May 8, 2016 | 12:00 AM
Contributed
Ronallie Sirju, marketing manager for Advanced Integrated Systems; David Koerner- director of marketing - Quisk; Stacy Peart - chief operating officer Advanced Integrated Systems and Doug Halsall - head of Advanced Integrated Systems at the NCB Tech Symposium on Wednesday April 20.

QUISK, a Silicon Valley, San Francisco, mobile-payment company, and Advanced Integrated Systems (AIS) - Jamaica's transaction-processing provider, have partnered to provide mobile money solutions for Jamaica and the Caribbean.

David Koerner, QUISK director of marketing, demonstrated how the process operates during a presentation at the National Commercial Bank Tech Symposium held at the Terra Nova All-Suite Hotel recently.

The mobile money solution was designed by Jamaicans to assist the Jamaican market. According to the 2015 World Bank Foreign Direct Investment report, up to 65 per cent of Jamaicans are 'underbanked' or 'unbanked' despite one of the highest number of open accounts in the region and a 95 per cent mobile penetration.

The opportunity for financial inclusion in Jamaica is an opening for volume transactions. Jamaicans face significant challenges developing relationships with the bank where they have an account and are burdened with the rising cost of transaction fees.

There are some key benefits for the unbanked and underbanked customers, including an easy-to-sign-up process requiring minimal personal information. The mobile money solution works on any network carrier in the island and can be accessed on smart phones, iPods, tablets or the computer.

From a regulatory standpoint, these solutions meet the Anti Money Laundering and Know Your Customer criteria, with automated limits and account maximum designed into the system. This conforms to the Bank of Jamaica standards, and customers are protected via SMS text message receipts and account balance checks.

In 2010, QUISK began working in Jamaica with AIS to develop a cash-based, bank-led mobile-payment solution. The technology allows any Jamaican with a mobile number on any network to securely access their money quickly and easily without needing cash or cards.

A cloud-based transaction-processing platform is architected to work across multiple issuers, and is scalable across endless transaction types to leverage existing point of sale infrastructure and systems to meet the needs of Jamaican account holders and the region.