Sagicor Bank Jamaica is going mobile with its banking services, starting Monday, when it hits the community of Spaldings in the parish of Clarendon.
The ‘Bank on Wheels’ will stay in Clarendon for six months, moving to different communities within the period and offering a range of basic banking services that customers would do in-branch, such as “opening of accounts, making deposits or withdrawals, and carrying out debit and credit card services”. Other in-branch services, such as wire transfers, were not listed as part of the arrangement.
Sagicor Bank CEO Chorvelle Johnson Cunningham said in a company-issued release that the initiative is one of the bank’s solutions regarding accessibility to banking services. Towards that goal, the companypreviously introduced its Swype card service that gives micro entrepreneurs and traders the ability to process card payments for their services on the go.
The aim, said Johnson Cunningham, in reference to the new mobile bank initiative, is to provide the market with “meaningful options for accessing banking services that will help in creating greater convenience for them in doing everyday transactions”.
It would also be the bank’s way of gaining market edge in a highly competitive sector in which it sits at the No. 4 spot among eight players, and holds a 10 per cent market share. In a retail banking sector valued at $1.7 trillion in assets and a $861-billion loan market, Sagicor Bank holds $87 billion in loans and $155 billion of assets, according to industry data for the June quarter published by the central bank.
