The last three months of 2020 saw growth in loans available to micro and small businesses, even as credit conditions tightened for larger firms. As bad debt ballooned to more than $29 billion, with another $62 billion the subject of payment...
While Jamaica’s financial system received a passing grade from the most recent report that gave it a health check, two banks and a securities dealer were said to have breached their minimum regulatory markers when hypothetical but possible adverse...
Following a March 30 assessment of the Jamaican financial sector in 2020, the central bank-led Financial System Stability Committee, FSSC, pronounced that the system is stable, at least for the short term. However, the committee, a statutory body...
A new basic consumer foods brand called ValuTree has hit the market, under partnership between the year-old trading, distribution and trade finance company Rerum Trading Limited and condiments producer Spur Tree Spices. The new brand is gunning for...
It’s been a decade since the Jamaica operation for Sagicor last saw net earnings this low, within the $4-billion range, but the rout is unlikely to be repeated this year; the group having already stripped itself of the hotel holdings that have been...
Sebastian Tickle, the former global head of operation and partnership development at business process outsourcing company Smart Solutions, has left to head up an outfit, in the same industry, that he co-owns with an American partner. He is now...
The creation of a new integrated IT platform for the safe sharing of bank supervision information between the Bank of Jamaica, BOJ, and the deposit-takers that it regulates will get under way later this year. But in the meantime, the central bank...
There have been ample indications of the formidable challenges to the heavily tourism and hospitality skewed investment holdings of Sagicor Real Estate X Fund Limited under the pandemic. But its newly released financials showing a $9.99-billion...
Business lobby group Jamaica Chamber of Commerce, JCC, is urging the government to follow through on a desire expressed by Minister of Finance Nigel Clarke to engage stakeholders in discussions about the bases, merits and experience of urban...
A recommendation for changes to the calculation of the capital adequacy ratio for general insurance companies is now being reviewed by the finance ministry and legislation is being drafted to the give effect to either a new minimum capital test or...
As developing countries grapple with the challenge of sourcing for their populations, sufficient quantities of vaccines against the dreaded COVID-19 disease, and large nations make a money play and market grab for the precious commodity, emerging...
The imposing 10-storey Soleil Residences condominium complex is the newest development along the Montego Freeport peninsula in Montego Bay, an area that has become a location for high-end resort living in western Jamaica. One real estate company is...
Another round in the dispute over the manufacture and export of soaps within the 15-member Caricom bloc looks set to be played out in court. Dominica Coconut Products Successors Limited, DCPS, has confirmed that it is contemplating legal action to...
Lawyers for tobacco company Carreras Limited say they are awaiting word from Jamaica Custom Agency, JCA, after the Supreme Court this month ordered the commissioner of customs to repay the cigarette trader $58.38 million, or an amount that reflects...
The alcoholic drinks industry is reporting an improvement in sales, badly dented earlier this year by the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, but even as the industry is in higher spirits over improving volume and income numbers, liquor manufacturing...
