JAMAICA Money Market Brokers (JMMB) on Monday reduced rates on all its existing loans by two percentage points and has dropped rates across all loan offerings going forward.

Yesterday, JMMB said it has cut rates “to as low as 16.95 per cent across their entire portfolio of loan offerings for new loans — motor vehicle, home equity, personal, education, SMEs and business loans”.

In 2007, JMMB shifted its focus towards establishing retail credit for individuals and financing for companies and small and medium sized enterprises.

“Credit is now fully back on track given the opportunities provided by the new and evolving market structure in Jamaica.” JMMB group CEO Keith Duncan said in a press statement issued yesterday. “The new interest rate regime, facilitated by the Jamaica Debt Exchange (JDX), reopens many opportunities for a range of attractive financing and investment options for individuals and SMEs and JMMB has decided to pass on said benefits to both new and existing loan holders.”

In light of the Government’s “reduced appetite for financing from the local market” JMMB says it’s ready to explore options that pay include providing commercial paper to companies seeking cheaper and more innovative means of financing than what currently prevails — a strategy the financial institutions said formed a major part of its development in the early 1990s.

“JMMB’s Credit Unit is focusing on effectively partnering with individuals and SMEs in offering and/or providing access to low interest loans with a more simplified and welcoming approach,” added the release.

Diane Bolton, JMMB credit manager, said: “We understand the acute challenges that entrepreneurs and business owners face in dealing with the traditional banking approach to financing SMEs. This partly accounts for the present low take-up of focused initiatives to support them. In recognition of this, our credit team is configuring its service delivery to provide the best value for total cost as well as to enable careful review of the businesses and identify/recommend resources to bolster the companies so they can better achieve their objectives — overall helping to make the process less painful.”