JN wallet not ready for remittances

In a new update on its upcoming digital wallet, the Jamaica National Group said JN Pay will roll out by mid-year but won’t offer remittances right away.

The app is being developed by tech company MC Management Control Systems, a member of the JN Group.

“The ability to send and receive remittances will not be a feature of the JN Pay wallet at its launch,” said JN. However, remittance “is a part of our road map and will be rolled out in a future release,” it added.

At its release, JN Pay will enable users to do transactions with other wallet holders using the JAM-DEX digital currency, as well as pay bills, and top-up cell phones.

JN is the second bank to be approved for JAM-DEX, the first being NCB through its Lynk wallet.

Currently JAM-DEX accounts for just $257 million of the total $224.6 billion of currency in circulation.

The Bank of Jamaica is rolling out a marketing programme to expand usage of the digital currency, which promises wallet holders cash-back incentives of up to $5,000 monthly and also offers small business owners an incentive of $25,000 for accepting the digital currency in payment for goods and services.

The central bank expects penetration of the digital currency to deepen as more providers are approved to distribute it.

JN said it will offer access via our ATMs to top up JAM-DEX accounts “so persons can transact business conveniently.”

It also said security would be a key feature of the JN Pay wallet, and that users would have the option of third-party authentication or biometric login.

“JN Pay, will also, at a later stage, allow persons to access other features including being able to store their credit and debit cards, in their wallet for ease of payments. It will also allow them to make payments for other services using JAM-DEX and allow merchants to accept payments in JAM-DEX,” JN said.

avia.collinder@gleanerjm.com