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.

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).

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.

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.

As the Government moves to implement the next phase of the public-sector compensation review, Prime Minister, the Most Hon. Andrew Holness, has reiterated the call for increased productivity in the civil service.

“We are at the point where we have to get our public sector to be more efficient. But the public sector is not made up of block and steel. The public sector is made up of people; we have to get our people [to be] more efficient. Put it another way, we have to get our workers more efficient,” Mr. Holness said.

He was speaking during the ribbon-cutting ceremony for The Vineyards at Deanery apartment complex on Deanery Road in Vineyard Town, Kingston, on Wednesday (March 27).

The Prime Minister noted that productivity is a complex issue, partly driven by motivation fuelled by compensation.

“But a part of productivity is management, and the culture of managing our resources for efficient delivery is not a culture that is deeply entrenched in our public service. The Government has put in place the compensation review programme, which, so far, the understanding of it is that it is about increasing pay levels. That is so, and I think we have largely accomplished that, except for anomalies that need to be worked through,” he stated.

“The next phase of the compensation review is the performance and accountability systems. If we are to maintain these layers of accountability which you, the public, have asked for, and increase efficiency, which you, the public, are also asking for, then the only way to get both is by performance management. We have to set goals and we have to keep to those goals. We have to set systems of rewarding people who use initiative and who deliver,” the Prime Minister added.

Mr. Holness argued that this is not a concept that is necessarily rooted in the public service.

“We don’t take risks and we are not rewarded for risk or performance. If this project gets built on time, I get the same pay as if it did not get built on time. So, my job, uncomfortable as it is and as unfavourable as it sounds, is that if Jamaica is going to move forward to achieve the vision that all of us want and all of us want to participate in it, then the next phase of this compensation review has to be executed. And it is for all of us here who work in the public sector – we have to recognise our important role in embracing performance management. So, we are going to move towards that, and we are going to ensure that Jamaica becomes the productive country that we know it can be,” he emphasised.

The Prime Minister further noted that the only way to protect against inflation is to increase output and increase productivity.

“So, it is in the interest of workers to increase productivity,” he underscored.

Meanwhile, Mr. Holness welcomed the new housing development, and congratulated the developers for getting the project done.

The Vineyards at Deanery comprises studio and two-bedroom apartments, with a sixth-floor penthouse, which are in both blocks.

It offers convenient commute to key destinations, including hospitals, educational institutions, sports facilities, and churches.

Other features include solid countertops, porcelain tiles, pool house, glass-walled elevator, water tank, water heater, landscaped grounds and lobby, Juliet balcony, and 24-hour security.

General Manager, Jamaica Mortgage Bank (JMB), Courtney Wynter,

For his part, General Manager, Jamaica Mortgage Bank (JMB), Courtney Wynter, said the entity has significantly contributed to the nation’s housing stock and the growth of the economy.

He noted that evidence of this is in the financing of approximately 60 per cent of Portmore and, more recently, funding of the Long Mountain housing development, the University of the West Indies dormitories, and countless other developments across the length and breadth of Jamaica, including The Vineyards at Deanery.

“In 2020, the world experienced the worst pandemic in 100 years. Most global businesses were severely impacted as governments of the day tried to implement measures to keep their populations safe. Jamaica was not immune to the economic fallout of the COVID-19 pandemic. However, unlike most developing and developed states, Jamaica had the foresight to balance the need for safety with the necessity for continued economic activities,” Mr. Wynter said.

“As a result, one of the sectors that held up our economy during this challenging period, was the construction sector. The Vineyards [at Deanery]… is clear evidence that the decision to keep the construction sector open during the pandemic was the correct decision,” he added.

Mr. Wynter noted that seven of the now eleven projects currently managed by the JMB started during the height of the pandemic.

He further stated that these apartments are the result of a very innovative public-private partnership.

“The Jamaica Mortgage Bank’s legacy over the past 50 years is also very evident, through the number of Jamaicans that have achieved homeownership through its business, resilience and innovation. As the Bank pivots for the next 50 years, to being a private listed company, it is our commitment to continue building on that legacy of a great Jamaican financial institution, providing safe and affordable housing and shelter for Jamaicans, while contributing to the wealth creation for the ordinary man,” Mr. Wynter said.