The JMMB Fund Managers Ltd. (JMMBFM) has added a new US dollar (USD) denominated money market fund, JMMB USD Giltedge Money Market Fund, to its current suite of offerings. This is the second USD fund introduced by JMMBFM since 2015, and brings the total number of funds offered in its portfolio to eight (8).
In a bid to provide clients with alternative investment solutions and in response to the changes in the regulatory environment, JMMBFM launched this new fund which will provide clients with additional USD exposure, outlined Christopher Walker, CEO, JMMBFM. The CEO continued noting, “The introduction of this fund will allow investors interested in capital perseveration and those with short to medium-term liquidity needs the opportunity to address these portfolio requirements, all while earning returns above average savings rates. Additionally, as the fund contains a mix of high quality securities, investors benefit from diversification and the management expertise of JMMB’s fund managers. As unit holders invest in US$, the value of their investment is generally protected from the long-term devaluation of the Jamaican currency, thereby preserving their purchasing power. The new fund is also seen as a strategic fit to complement and bolster the current suite of offerings, under JMMB Life Goal suite, the JMMBFM exec further commented.
The fund is being offered at a price of US$1 during the initial offer period which ends on July 31. The minimum subscription amount allowed during the initial offer period is 100 units, subsequently a minimum purchase of 50 units is required; however the unit price thereafter, would be based on the daily net asset value per unit, explained Walker. Subscription and redemption of units is denominated in US dollars for this fund.
Although the low subscription price makes the fund accessible and affordable for especially smaller investors, the fund manager notes that larger investors and small and medium size enterprises (SMEs) can also benefit from participating in the fund given its relative stability (low volatility), and liquidity balanced by the expected above average return.
JMMB USD Giltedge Money Market Fund will largely consist of a diversified range of short to medium term high grade sovereign bonds, repurchase (repo) agreements and preference shares; and is therefore beneficial for investors interested in a conservative investment solution.
In May 2015, JMMBFM introduced four (4) funds namely: JMMB Bond Fund, JMMB Real Value Fund, JMMB J$ Income Distribution Fund and the JMMB US$ Income Distribution Fund. JMMBFM also offers the Jamaican dollar equivalent of this new fund, J$ Giltedge Money Market Fund, in addition to JMMB Income and Growth Fund and Optimum Capital Real Estate Fund, as part of its suite of fund offerings.
Although declining to give specific timelines, Walker indicated that JMMBFM was looking to further bolster its suite with new offerings to continue to fill perceived investment gaps in the market.
JMMBFM’s current collective investment scheme (CIS) portfolio consists primarily of: equities, sovereign and corporate debt and real-estate.
For the 2016/2017 financial year ending March 31, 2017, JMMBFM’s collective investment scheme (CIS) funds under management (FUM) increased by J$4.5 billion or 67% to J$11.2 billion. Walker revealed this success was attributed to a focused and sustained effort to align client value propositions with structured investment portfolios, underpinned by our range of CIS. The company’s business model embodies a client centric focus with the ultimate aim of providing clients with the benefits of continued process improvements and thereby, an enhanced experience.
The JMMB executive is looking forward to steady growth of JMMBFM’s funds under management, citing a conducive regulatory environment which encourages investment in collective investment schemes, as opposed to repurchase (repo) agreements. With increased client education, collective investment scheme is poised to become a more popular investment instrument notes Walker. BM
The National Insurance Fund (NIF) plans to increase its net assets through the prudent management of the investment portfolio mix.
As stated by the Ministry of Finance and the Public Service (MFPS) in the 2024/25 Jamaica Public Bodies’ Estimates of Revenue and Expenditure, the increase will be achieved through participation in opportunities that allow for the maximum growth potential and dividend yield for funds invested in the financial markets.
The improvement in the net asset value will allow for the continued allocation of payments to the National Insurance Scheme (NIS) as required.
The strategies to be undertaken include increasing investments within the maximum allowable policy limits in financial instruments that provide strong prospects for growth, and diversifying the portfolio into assets that provide increased returns.
Reforms will also be pursued to improve the corporate governance structure of the NIF, to enable the entity to strengthen its compliance regime and respond to market conditions, while facilitating sustained growth and returns on funds held.
The NIS was established under Section 29 of the National Insurance Act of 1966 as the vehicle into which the NIS contributions are paid.
Its core function is the investment of NIS contributions to provide optimum benefits to the contributors.
The investment portfolio comprises a diversified asset portfolio consisting of fixed income, equities, loans and real estate assets.
The NIF disburses funds to the NIS to provide for its registered beneficiaries, which include pension grants and health insurance in the form of NI Gold.
The Fund also remits 20 per cent of NIS contributions to the National Health Fund ( NHF).
The NIF projects a net surplus of $38.9 billion for financial year 2024/25 over $20.1 billion for 2023/24.
Consequent upon the reorganization of the Mayberry Group of Companies, this letter serves to advise of the Directors and Company Secretary of Mayberry Group Ltd. Note that Mayberry Group Ltd, a company incorporated under the laws of Saint Lucia, was listed on the Jamaica Stock Exchange on December 13, 2023.
The current Listing of Directors, appointed on September 6, 2023, are as follows:
1. Christopher Berry
2. Konrad Berry
3. Gary Peart
4. Richard Surage
5. Gladstone Lewars
6. Alok Jain
7. Erwin Angus
8. Walter Scott
The Corporate Secretary of Mayberry Group Ltd is FinSec Limited, appointed on November 15, 2022.
Justin Nam has resigned as Eppley’s General Manager to pursue other interests after nearly a decade at the company. His resignation is effective May 31, 2024, and he will coordinate with Raymond and Jeffrey to facilitate a smooth transition.
Raymond Donaldson to join Eppley as CEO
Raymond Donaldson will serve as the Chief Executive Officer of Eppley Limited (Eppley) effective May 3, 2024.
“Raymond has extensive leadership experience in financial markets across the Caribbean and a track record of scaling regional businesses. He has consistently demonstrated the ability to lead high performing teams and deliver results. We are delighted that Raymond will be joining Eppley.” said P.B. Scott, Chairman of Eppley.
Jeffrey Brown will also join Eppley on May 3, 2024, as Chief Investment Officer and will work closely with Denise Gallimore, VP of Real Estate and Samantha Summerbell, AVP Credit to grow and expand Eppley’s investment efforts.
Justin Nam has resigned as Eppley’s General Manager to pursue other interests after nearly a decade at the company. His resignation is effective May 31, 2024, and he will coordinate with Raymond and Jeffrey to facilitate a smooth transition.
“Justin has been an integral part of developing Eppley into the leading regional investment firm it is today contributing to the growth of our credit, mezzanine, infrastructure and real estate portfolios across the Caribbean. As an Eppley alumnus, we wish him well in his future endeavours.” said Nicholas Scott, Vice Chairman of Eppley. “I’ve worked closely for many years with both Raymond and Jeffrey. I know they share Eppley’s investment philosophy and I’m confident that they will continue our proud track record and build our business.”
“Eppley is a pioneer in private market investing in the Caribbean and one of the most respected investment firms in our region known for the caliber of its team, its financial performance and its integrity. I plan to lead Eppley guided by its founding principles for benefit of our team, our clients and our shareholders.” said Raymond Donaldson, Eppley’s incoming Chief Executive Officer.
Raymond Donaldson has a 20-year career in banking and finance in Jamaica, the Bahamas and the wider Caribbean. Most recently, Mr. Donaldson was Vice President Corporate and Commercial Banking at National Commercial Bank. Prior to that Mr. Donaldson served as Director of Corporate and Investment Banking in the Bahamas and Turks and Caicos at CIBC FirstCaribbean.
Jeffrey Brown has held executive roles in banking in Jamaica and Barbados, mostly recently as Head of Loan Structuring and Syndications at National Commercial Bank and previously at CIBC FirstCaribbean, Scotiabank and PricewaterhouseCoopers.
Jamaica’s Ambassador to the United States, Her Excellency Audrey Marks, shares a moment with (from left) Massachusetts Institute of Technology Professor, Emil Vermer; Professor, Harvard Business School, Laura Alfaro; University of Colorado Professor, Barry Eichengreen; Jamaican economist at Stanford University, Professor Peter Blair Henry; and International Monetary Fund (IMF) Economist, Serkan Arslanalp. Occasion was the Brookings Institute spring papers on economic activity, featuring Jamaica, in Washington DC on March 28.
Jamaica is being hailed as “exceptional” for achieving sustained reduction in the public-debt-to-gross-domestic-product ratio (GDP) despite global financial crises, pandemics, and other emergencies.
In a paper titled ‘Sustained Debt Reduction: The Jamaica Exception’, authors Serkan Arslanalp, Barry Eichengreen and Professor Peter Blair Henry, noted that the sharp, sustained reductions in public debt are outstanding “because public-debt-to-GDP ratios have been trending up in advanced countries, emerging markets, and developing countries alike”.
The paper was presented at the Brookings Institute in Washington on Thursday (March 28).
“Governments have borrowed in response to financial crises, pandemics, wars and other emergencies, resulting in higher debt ratios. But only in rare instances have they succeeded in bringing those higher debt ratios back down once the emergency passed,” the paper pointed out.
Jamaican economist at Stanford University, Professor Peter Blair Henry, delivers a paper on ‘Sustained Debt Reduction the Jamaica Exception’ at the Brookings Institute in Washington DC on Thursday (March 28). At left is Co-presenter University of Colorado Professor, Barry Eichengreen.
In the case of Jamaica, the Government was able to cut its debt ratio in half from 144 per cent of GDP at the end of 2012 to 72 per cent in 2023.
The economists said the achievement was despite vulnerability to hurricanes, floods, droughts, earthquakes, storm surges and landslides, noting that Jamaica is ranked as the third most disaster-prone country in the world according to the Global Facility for Disaster Reduction and Recovery.
“It did so despite a COVID-19 pandemic that disrupted tourism and mandated exceptional increases in public spending. Yet, despite this exogenously prompted deviation from plan, the IMF’s baseline projection, in its 2023 Article IV report, forecasts a further fall in debt-GDP to less than 60 per cent over the next four years,” the paper said further.
The paper highlighted the fact that the Fiscal Responsibility Framework, introduced in 2010, required the Minister of Finance to take measures to reduce, by the end of fiscal year 2016, the fiscal balance to nil, the debt-GDP ratio to 100 per cent, and public-sector wages as a share of GDP to nine per cent.
“The framework was augmented in 2014 to require the Minister, by the end of fiscal year 2018, to specify a multi-year fiscal trajectory to bring the debt-GDP ratio down to 60 per cent by 2026. The framework included an escape clause to be invoked in the event of large shocks.
“This prevented the rule from being so rigid, in a volatile macroeconomic environment, as to lack credibility. At the same time, it included clear criteria and independent oversight to prevent opportunistic use,” the paper said.
: Jamaica’s Ambassador to the United States, Her Excellency Audrey Marks, speaks with University of Colorado Professor, Barry Eichengreen (left), and Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Professor, Emil Vermer, at the presentation of the Brookings Institute spring papers on economic activity, featuring Jamaica, in Washington DC on March 28.
The paper further pointed to the consensus building exercise entered into by the Government, which was key to the achievement.
“In 2013, a series of ongoing discussions in the National Partnership Council, a social dialogue collaboration involving the Government, parliamentary Opposition, and social partners, culminated in the Partnership for Jamaica Agreement on consensus policies in four areas, first of which was fiscal reform and consolidation,” the paper noted.
“The Partnership for Jamaica Agreement fostered a common belief that the burden of fiscal adjustment would be widely and fairly shared. It supported the creation and ensured broad national acceptance of the Economic Programme Oversight Committee (EPOC) to monitor and publicly report on fiscal policies and outcomes, and to provide independent verification that all parties kept to the terms of their agreement,” the research said.
“By creating a sense of fair burden sharing, Jamaica’s organised process of consultation thus sustained public support for the operation of the country’s fiscal rules, culminating in March 2023 with the establishment of a permanent, independent Fiscal Commission,” the economists declared.
“Jamaica managed its financial system well in this period. It adeptly managed the term structure of the debt, by way of a well-designed fiscal rule, and a partnership agreement creating confidence that the burden of adjustment would be widely and fairly shared.
The fiscal responsibility and the partnership agreement were key, as neither element would have worked to achieve sustained debt reduction in the absence of the other.
Tourism Minister, Hon. Edmund Bartlett, has emphasised the importance of Jamaica’s Tourism Strategy and Action Plan (TSAP) in generating the stakeholder capacity to respond to the industry’s new architecture.
The TSAP, being executed through a partnership with the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), is geared towards boosting socio-economic development and investment, building the local tourism industry’s resilience to climate change and reducing the sector’s contribution to climate change.
It also aims to diversify Jamaica’s inbound tourism and promote the industry’s knowledge-based and technology-enabled development.
Mr. Bartlett also highlighted the TSAP’s importance in making tourism more inclusive and more of an enabler of economic growth and development in Jamaica.
“So, the strategies have to look at not just the physical areas but it has to start with human capital. The most important element within our tourism realisation is with people. Jamaica’s wealth is not in minerals, as you know; but what we really have are our people, and our people are the wealth of this country,” the Minister said.
“And so, our strategy has to deal, very strongly, with building, training, building intellectual capacity, building innovative capacities, building creative capacities, [and] building a new sense of how people can convert knowledge into material goods and services which will have a value and a price,” Mr. Bartlett added.
He was speaking during the opening session of the Tourism Strategy and Action Plan Consultation Workshop for Kingston and St. Andrew, at the Spanish Court Hotel in New Kingston on Thursday (April 4).
Minister of Tourism, Hon. Edmund Bartlett (left), shares a light moment with General Manager, Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) Caribbean Country Department Group and Representative in Jamaica, Anton Edmunds, during the opening session of the Tourism Strategy and Action Plan Consultation Workshop for Kingston and St. Andrew, at the Spanish Court Hotel in New Kingston on Thursday (April 4).
Meanwhile, Mr. Bartlett underscored the need to increase local production, which is critical in enabling Jamaica to retain a larger ratio of the tourist dollar.
“The consumption pattern of the visitor is three to five times that of the locals. Some people don’t understand why revenue to government has increased significantly without increasing/or new taxes being imposed. They don’t understand that what tourism has done is to increase the consumption pattern in Jamaica exponentially over the last two and a half years in particular, as we started from zero and grew to what is now 4.2 million visitors,” he stated.
“So, whose food are they eating? That is our job, to make sure that it is Jamaican food… our farmers must step up to the plate. The strategy in tourism must drive the linkages in the various areas, so as to stop the leakages from all the other areas,” Minister Bartlett added.
The workshop marks the final in a series of engagements aimed at highlighting relevant components of the Tourism Strategy and gathering as much input as possible from key stakeholders.
Minister of Tourism, Hon. Edmund Bartlett (left), makes a point to Operations Lead Specialist, Tourism, Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), Olga Gomez-Garcia, during the opening session of the Tourism Strategy and Action Plan Consultation Workshop for Kingston and St. Andrew held at the Spanish Court Hotel in New Kingston on Thursday (April 4). Looking on is General Manager, IDB Caribbean Country Department Group and Representative in Jamaica, Anton Edmunds.
Bank of Jamaica (BOJ) takes note of the recent Court Decision in the matter involving Alliance Investment Management Limited (AIML), which is not a licensee of the Bank, and public commentary related to the actions taken by the Bank in December 2021 to suspend the cambio and remittance operating licences issued to then AIML-affiliated company Alliance Financial Services Limited (AFSL) effective 3 December 2021. The Bank’s actions also included the revocation of the authorisation granted to AFSL to operate in the Bank of Jamaica Fintech Regulatory Sandbox as a payment service provider effective 3 December 2021.
As stated by the Bank at the time, the regulatory actions became necessary after the Financial Investigations Division (FID) on 2 December 2021 charged AFSL’s principals and two AFSL-affiliated companies at the time (AIML and Alliance Finance Limited (AFL)) with several offences under the Bank of Jamaica Act and the Banking Services Act. Bank of Jamaica is aware that investigations by the FID into the Alliance Group began around 2018. However, it was only after formal charges were laid against the entities and their principals by the FID following the requisite ruling by the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions, that BOJ took the regulatory action of the suspension of licences to safeguard the financial system. The formal charging of the entities and their principals raised serious “fit and proper” considerations for their continued operation of financial services under the Bank of Jamaica Act and the Banking Services Act.
Alliance Finance Limited subsequently pleaded guilty in the St. Andrew Parish Court to several breaches of the Bank of Jamaica Act and the Banking Services Act and was fined. These breaches for which AFL was convicted related to “Carrying on the Business of Lending in Foreign Currency in breach of the Bank of Jamaica Act” and “Accepting Deposits Without the Requisite Licence in breach of the Banking Services Act.” The breaches involved engaging in economic activities which are regulated and which require an extensive application process, extensive due diligence checks and continuous monitoring throughout the life of the licence in the case of the Banking Services Act. The breaches also involved engaging in the business of lending in foreign currency without the requisite authorisation that allows for review, due diligence and monitoring mechanisms being applied to ensure continued order in the foreign Exchange market. These represent breaches of the substantive framework of financial services regulated by Bank of Jamaica. One consequence of such breaches is being rendered unfit to own and operate financial services in the financial system.
Bank of Jamaica is also aware of legal action initiated in the Supreme Court by the FID related to criminal forfeiture regarding the offences for which AFL was convicted in relation to the Bank of Jamaica Act and the Banking Services Act.
Bank of Jamaica maintains that its actions taken in December 2021 to suspend the cambio and remittance operating licence of AFSL and to revoke the authorisation granted to AFSL to operate in the BOJ Fintech Regulatory Sandbox as a payment service provider, were necessary as the allegations at the time threatened the good order in the foreign exchange market and payment systems as well as the reputation and good standing of the Jamaican financial system internationally. It is important to note that BOJ’s regulatory actions were the subject of judicial review, and finding in the Bank’s favour, the Court of Appeal noted in its 2022 judgment in the matter of Alliance Financial Services Limited v Bank of Jamaica that, “the risk to the financial sector outweighed the economic loss and inconvenience AFSL may suffer as a result of the continuation of the suspension.”
Bank of Jamaica remains committed to fulfilling its mandate to ensure the stability of the Jamaican financial system and the effective and impartial supervision of its licensees.
It is also to be noted that Alliance’s divestment of business was a strategy and activity pursued by the principals of Alliance as their own business decision.
It is also to be noted that Alliance’s divestment of business was a strategy and activity pursued by the principals of Alliance as their own business decision. Bank of Jamaica had no part in that decision or transaction. On 1 April 2022, BOJ publicly advised that AFSL, under a new ownership structure, applied for a cambio and remittance licence, and having satisfied the Bank’s due diligence requirements, was licenced to offer cambio and remittance services at approved locations effective 23 March 2022.