Jamaica's remittance markets span the globe, but flows come chiefly from the United States.
With cross-border money transfers in decline, remittance com-panies have been positioning for the business that tends to increase during the Christmas season through aggressive promotions, trumpeting the convenience of cash, but some have gone a step further to quietly reshape their remittance networks to get closer to users.
GraceKennedy, this week, on the back of a glossy promotional brochure from its houseware retail chain Rapid TrueValue, quietly announced that, starting this month, Western Union remittance services, Bill Express bill payment and foreign exchange services would be available at four stores in major towns nationwide - Lane Plaza in Kingston, Mandeville, Montego Bay and Ocho Rios.
National Commercial Bank, agent for MoneyGram and Senvia, on Monday refreshed its campaign with a 'Get More' theme that promises low fees, competitive exchange rates and transfers which can be collected in "as little as ten minutes" from 42 branches nationwide.
In October 1, Jamaica National Building Society opened another Money Shop in Highgate, St Mary, increasing remittance access to 32 locations.
Mortgage portfolio
For JN Money Services Limited, fees earned from money transfers increased by 32 per cent during the year ending March 2009, contrasting with the mortgage portfolio which fell by 10.5 per cent and the loan interest-income which fell by 24 per cent.
JN, which is also agent for MoneyGram, in its promotional advertisements, attempts to play on national pride with an 'I love Jamaica' tagline in its search for business for JN Money services.
Another company, Jamaica Trading Services Limited (JTS), which has been in the business of cargo-shipping and freight-handling since 1988, has launched into the money services business under the name JTS Remittance Company Limited, which, according to the Bank of Jamaica, has been around since 2004.
JTS calls its service Swift Cash, saying in a press advertisement that it has a network of 60 locations for payouts.
Its agents include credit unions and moneylenders, pharmacies and retailers.
The company, through represen-tative Tanya Officer, declined to speak with the Financial Gleaner on its operation. Both the JTS and Swift Cash websites are under construction, and had no additional information, but the latter does invite persons to sign up as agents through a phone number that is not recognisable as Jamaican.
Remittances bring in just under US$2 billion of foreign exchange to Jamaica annually, most of which flows through remittance companies, banks, and building societies. But, hit by the global recession, migrant workers have less income to transfer back home to families.
Transfers to Jamaica are down 14 per cent, from US$1.71 billion of inflows in January-October 2008 to $1.47 billion for the same period in 2009.
Remittance companies, which command the lion's share of the market, have seen only a 2.4 per cent decline in business, according to central bank data, but the transfers handled by banks and others have plummeted to a 49 per cent slump, from US$426 million to US$216 million.
December is their best opportunity to recover lost ground, but expectations are the usually high season for cash will not be as lucrative as last year.
But GraceKennedy's Noel Greenland said, Western Union, which commands the largest market share has outperformed the industry, recording "5.0 per cent growth in the total number of transactions which resulted in a significant increase in our market share."
BOJ said there were no new market entrants in 2008 and 2009, leaving the rivalry for a smaller pot to the same 12 players licensed by the BOJ, who offer their products and services at 488 dealer and agent locations nationwide.
The United States is the main source of remittance inflows for Jamaica with US$1.107 billion coming from that country in 2008, followed by the United Kingdom which remitted US$509 million, Canada with US$157.2 million and Cayman Islands, US$140 million.
avia.collinder@gleanerjm.com