JNBS realises a net surplus of over $1 billion

Earl Jarrett

THE JAMAICA National Building Society (JNBS) group reported yesterday that it had a successful financial year, producing a net surplus before tax of just over $1 billion, spurred in part by some level of stability in the island's economy.

General manager of JNBS, Earl Jarrett, said the group's performance was underpinned by good net interest income, unrealised foreign exchange gains and the positive performance of its subsidiaries, especially NEM Insurance Company which it acquired last year, and which contributed $209 million after tax to the group's profits.

In a report to shareholders for the year to March 31, 2001, and released ahead of the group's annual general meeting at the Mandeville Hotel, Manchester yesterday, Mr. Jarrett said there was a $1.5 billion or eight per cent growth in the Society's assets, pushing total assets to $20.5 billion. That growth was underpinned by what the general manager said was a strong $1.2 billion increase in their savings fund, moving the balance to $17.4 billion.

He said the capital and reserves of the Society rose to $375 million or 17 per cent to end the year at $2.55 billion. That took the ratio of capital and reserves to savings to 15 per cent and capital and reserves to assets to 13 per cent, "evidencing the Society's ability to adequately protect savers' funds."

Mr. Jarrett said that during the review period, 790 new loans were added, representing a 57 per cent increase over the growth in the previous year and took the total number of loans at year end to 11,798. He said the branches originated all of the new loans and that compared with a total of 636 loans during the comparative period in 1999/2000.

That performance was influenced primarily by "our competitive mortgage rates and the wide range of creative mortgage loans products introduced over the last two years, in particular the JN Home Start and to a lesser extent the JN HELP mortgage products," said the general manager.

JNBS chairman, Keith Francis, in his report to shareholders, said the JN branch which started in Papine, St. Andrew in November last year opened 1,277 new savings accounts between then and March 31, 2001. He said the JN Micro Credit Company, a fully owned subsidiary, reported $7 million in profits after tax for the six months to March 31, and those funds would be used primarily to support the grant-making activities of the JNBS Foundation. During the six month period, the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), who are partners in the Micro Credit Company, provided technical assistance and funding of $588,634, the chairman said.

Since the inception of the JN Fund Managers in January 2000, more than $1 billion in investment funds have flowed into the organisation, Mr. Francis said, noting that subsidiary contributed $10 million to the consolidated surplus after tax.

Management Control Systems, which is 94 per cent owned by JNBS, contributed $35 million to the group's profits, while combined totals for money transfers from its United States and United Kingdom subsidiaries increased in volume by 47,890 or 40 per cent, and in value by $1 billion or 50 per cent.

Mr. Francis said that since the inception of Tools for Development, a not for profit company, in February, this year, its has brought in two shipments of used tools in collaboration with its partners in Canada. More than 75 per cent of the first shipment of tools has been transferred to beneficiaries, and micro entrepreneurs are being identified for the second shipment, he said.

Tools for Development, which was established by CARE Canada in collaboration with JNBS, The Gleaner Company and the Kingston Restoration Company (KRC), imports second hand tools donated to the programme by businesses in Canada. The company in turn sells the tools at affordable prices to local tradesmen and artisans whose subsistence depends mainly on small and micro enterprise activities.

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