6 months ago
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New portal, GK One Send, is a product of operations at GraceKennedy’s ‘digital factory’.
Now, using the GK One app, customers can remit funds using their debit or credit cards. Their recipients will then be able to receive the transferred funds via various payout methods, including retail locations locally and internationally; bank accounts in the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom; or directly to their own GK One wallet and companion Visa Prepaid card, depending on their location.
This is the company’s second go at introducing a mobile wallet to the Jamaican market following the introduction of GK MPay in 2017 and its withdrawal about two years later.
Rickardo Ebanks, chief digital officer of GraceKennedy Financial Group Limited and head of the digital factory that’s based at Belmont Road, Kingston, said the GK team began testing the product towards the end of last year before bringing it to market.
“We were working on this for the better part of 2024 ... then we got to a place where it was functional, certified by Western Union, and then we had it in pilot with customers since the last quarter of last year,” Ebanks told the Financial Gleaner, after the launch of GK One Send on Monday.
The level of investment it took to bring the new wallet to market was not disclosed.
President and CEO of GraceKennedy Money Services Limited and CEO of GK Financial Group, Grace Burnett, said the wallet would not only allow GK remittance customers to receive funds via the GK One app, which is already available to them, but now they can also remit funds to persons in Jamaica and overseas through GK One Send.
Speaking on the sidelines after the launch, Burnett told the Financial Gleaner that the product development benefited from the rigorous demands of the Bank of Jamaica’s fintech sandbox, a controlled environment for the deployment and testing of financial technology.
The central bank itself describes the sandbox as a platform that encourages innovations in financial services, promote competition and financial inclusion, all while protecting consumers and mitigating risks associated with digital financial services.
Fielding questions at the launch, Chief Operating Officer of GraceKennedy Money Services, Margaret Campbell, said the new product allows “transactions that are sent over the Western Union rails”.
The majority of the 100,000 customers are now receiving funds via the GK One app, according to Campbell, who expects the new ‘send’ feature to entice more customers to sign up for GK One, but did not disclose the projected numbers.
In an unspoken reference to the former GK MPay, Campbell said: “We see this as an improvement on that product,” said the COO.
“We learnt from the initial launch of the other product. We have factored in all the feedback from our customers, and we believe this is a much stronger product that we have now, so we think it will be, we know it will do, much better,” she said.
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