Loans to surge at Jamaica National

Jamaica National enjoyed a 10 percent increase in loans at the end of March this year over March 2015 to $66 billion inclusive mortgages that rose from $56 billion to $61 billion. Based on loans approved and not disbursed at the end of March, the loans portfolio seems set to climb at a much faster pace than for 2016 fiscal year.
According to the societies’ financials, loans approved but not yet disbursed jumped by a sharp 168 percent to $7.36 billion or 12 percent of outstanding loans, up from $2.75 billion or 4.9 percent of the loan portfolio at March 2015.
Jamaica National, Jamaica’s largest building society had a mix fortunes in fiscal year 2016 with assets climbing by 8.8 percent to $181 billion. Investment securities made up the bulk of the assets at $94 billion. Equity capital stood at $31.2 billion and savers deposits of $101.4 billion up from$90 billion in 2015.
The society suffered a sharp drop of 44 percent in profits to $1.42 billion from $2.53 billion in 2015. For the year to March 2014, profit jumped to $2.3 billion from only $908 million in the previous year.
Contributing to profit for the year was net interest income growing from $8.5 billion to $8.8 billion, other operating income that fell from $6.2 billion to $5.9 billion and operating expenses climbing from $11.8 billion to $13.3 billion.