By Dennise Williams, Staff ReporterBY ALL accounts, December 2003 was a very good month for the remittance business in Jamaica with companies interviewed by Wednesday Business stating that they had all experienced growth.
The Bank of Jamaica (BoJ), which has recorded remittance flows for the first ten months of the year, reveals that remittances were up by 9.32 per cent from the corresponding period of 2002. January to October 2002 saw inflows of US$1.0088 billion, while in the same period of 2003 the figure was US$1.1028 billion.
For December 2002, US $107.4 million was sent into the island. Early indications are that December 2003 has equalled or exceeded this figure.
At Victoria Mutual Building Society (VMBS), which distributes remittances to clients from their in-house service Victoria Link, a source said, "the figures were good in December. There certainly seems to be an increase in recent times."
VMBS states that most of their clients receive money from the United Kingdom. Early figures from that building society reveal that over 3,000 persons received on average 193 pounds Sterling each. But, the source said, "these are not final figures. We are still collating the exact results."
Jamaica National (JN), another building society in the remittance business stated that this December was the best ever in terms of value and volume of transactions.
"I estimate that we did more than ten per cent better this December than last," said Ms. Leesa Kow, JN senior manager in charge of remittances. "We had in excess of 10,000 transactions processed in December with the average amount being sent was 100 British pounds."
Ms. Kow informed Wednesday Business that the remittance market has grown because of Jamaica's economic difficulties, the increasing level of out-migration and the publicity given to the remittance industry that has allowed Jamaicans abroad to more easily transfer funds to those in the island.
THE BASIS FOR THE GROWTH
Another remittance company, the Cayman Islands based Quick Cash Sun Money Transfer, explained that combination of the recovery in the worldwide economy and lack of economic recovery in Jamaica has been the basis for the growth of their business.
"It is true that this December was the best for 2003 and even better than December 2002, but growth in the number of transaction far exceeded that in the value of transactions," said Ken Mitchell, manager of Quick Cash. "From December 2002 to 2003, there was a 16 per cent increase in the value of transactions while there was a 40 per cent increase in the number of transactions."
The average Quick Cash transaction was US$200.
Capital and Credit Remittance Limited, a subsidiary of Capital and Credit Merchant Bank was in line with other companies in reporting growth.
"Comparing December 2002 to December 2003, our business grew by 25 per cent," stated Andrew Cocking, Capital and Credit deputy group president. "Our average transaction value was US$200. It's amazing, but that figure remains consistent through the year."
Mr. Cocking revealed that his firm had in excess of 10,000 transactions for December.
At Grace, Kennedy Remittance Services, general manager Oliver Chen said, "for us, December was good. There was a substantial increase in the number of transactions in December compared to last year."
Along with other industry executives, Mr. Chen was reluctant to offer details about the remittance operations, but when asked whether the number of transactions exceeded 50,000, he said that estimate was low.
Mr. Chen admitted, "most of our remittances come from New York and the average transaction size is US$200."
