Approximately $14 billion flowed on Multi-Link during December 2015, with top spending on December 18 when nearly one billion dollars was withdrawn on the network.

Edmundo Jenez, general manager of JETS Limited, which operates the Multilink network, said Tuesday that demand for money on the network is up 27 per cent year over year for January to December 28, 2015.

MultiLink, he said, is nearing the trillion-dollar mark by value of transactions over its 18 years of existence.

For the Jan 1 – Dec 28, 2015 period, more than $125.949 billion was withdrawn, an increase of 27.4 per cent over 2014 . The total withdrawals for 2014 was $98.6 billion.

For 2015, the number of transactions was 21,726 million, an increase of 21.43 per cent over the 17,110 million transactions in 2014.

During December, which is characterised as the most cash-intensive month of the year, more than $13.1 billion was withdrawn via ABM and point of sale (POS) terminals for the period Dec 1 to 28, 2015 – via 2,046,584 withdrawal transactions.

Notably, MultiLink only handles about 20 to 25 per cent of all debit payments (network interbank activity). The rest is at the individual bank level servicing their own customers at their own terminal.

Jenez said JETS was expecting a total of $14 billion for the month by year end.

The network’s island wide pool of shared terminals saw an increase to 713 ABM and 11,197 POS units across all parishes and towns in 2015. Since official start up on June 1, 1997, MultiLink has delivered nearly $1 trillion dollars ($921.4 billion) via more than 206 million withdrawals, Jenez stated.

“MultiLink’s social and econometric impacts have been great, expanding access to low cost electronic payments to within reach of every Jamaican, helping to save large amounts of man hours for more productive us,” the general manager boasted.

During 2015, new milestones reached by the company included more than one million active card holders in the past 12 months; and 479,547 card users online in the month of December as of Dec 28, 2015.

Friday, December 18th, also saw a new MultiLink record of $943 million dispensed via 118,820 withdrawals in one day — for an average withdrawl of about $8,000. Christmas Eve, December 24, produced a demand of $871 Million but with a larger 126,994 withdrawals, Jenez disclosed.

Comparatively, in 2014 the peak day was Friday Dec 19th with $760 Million (104,231 withdrawals), or an average withdrawal of about $7,300. Christmas Eve 2014 produced a demand for $720 Million (111,448 withdrawal)

Jenez said point of sale (POS) demand grew by more than 65.57 per cent while ABM cash withdrawals grew by 9.25 per cent overall during 2015.

Reflecting on the year, Jenez said, “2015 has been a great year for business performance and customer service. JETS has maintained the MultiLink network at international levels of high reliability, customer access and inclusion via the economies of scale achieved by its members working together.”

The members organisations participating in the MultiLink Network are the seven owners of JETS Ltd: Scotiabank, CIBC FirstCaribbean, Jamaica Cooperative Credit Union League, Jamaica National Building Society, National Commercial Bank, Sagicor, and Victoria Mutual Building Society, along with licensees First Global Bank and JMMB Merchant Bank.