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Digicel Limited, which owns Paymaster Jamaica Limited, plans to work with the regulator to restore remittance services after uncovering a breach in its record keeping.
Its licence was suspended by the central bank this week.
“Paymaster can confirm that it received a notice of suspension of our money transfer and remittance licence from the Bank of Jamaica,” said Digicel’s head of communication Antonia Graham.
Digicel operates a telecoms company in Jamaica and the Caribbean. Part of its local operations include investments in cable and money services.
The suspension applies to a “small part” of its Paymaster business, specifically its primary agent services supplied to a single “overseas provider”. The company operates remittance services via the international provider MoneyGram. It also offers subagent services for other local companies, which remain unaffected.
The BOJ indicated that service would be affected at Paymaster at 19 locations, while 47 locations would be unaffected.
Unaffected services include Paymaster’s bill payment services, and its remittance services via Lasco and JMMB Money Transfers, the company said.
Effective July 5, the BOJ said it suspended Paymaster’s primary agent services but was silent on the rationale. Digicel explained that it came in response to a “breach of Paymaster’s record-keeping requirements”. Digicel further indicated that it emerged from a “system error” and that Paymaster had “proactively” advised the BOJ of the issue under its statutory obligations. Despite this being the first notification of non-compliance, it resulted in an “immediate” suspension by the BOJ, added Digicel. The company said it takes regulations seriously and remains committed to “understanding and addressing” the issues raised by the BOJ.
“We have notified our Paymaster directors and customers of the situation and will provide updates as appropriate,” added Digicel.
It’s the first suspension in two years. BOJ suspended 44 cambio and remittance locations in 2021, according to the BOJ Remittance Bulletin.
The BOJ regulates 237 companies that offer remittance services at 502 locations.
The remittance market is worth more than US$3 billion annually.
So far this year, remittance inflows for January to March totalled US$797 million, a slight dip from US$800.6 million in the comparative period a year earlier, according to BOJ data.
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