JAMAICANS worried about the novel coronavirus pandemic are logging on to the Internet in droves to make bill payments. Data provided by at least on local bill payment agency, GraceKennedy’s Bill Express, show its online platform has seen usage increase by 40 per cent since the onset of the pandemic.

The company, however, declined to disclose market share. A spokesperson, in response to queries from the Jamaica Observer, was only willing to say, “We continue to enjoy a significant share of the bill payment market.” The spokesperson said the company has been seeing “more persons choosing our online platform during the pandemic due to safety concerns, ease of use, security and the fact that it is free to the customer”. Attemps to get data from other providers proved futile.

However, data from the Bank of Jamaica show that bill payment service companies continue to hold their own amid more competition for the consumer dollar from other entities including banks, which are increasingly offering bill payment services on their online platforms. The data show that after holding steady in 2020, there has been a marked uptick in payments using the services since the start of 2021.

For the January to June period of 2021 bill payment companies recorded 12.1 million transactions valued at $205.9 billion, according to the data provided by the central bank. For the comparative period in 2020, January to June, there were 10.36 million transactions valued at $184.95 billion. A review of the last two years and six months shows payments falling to a low point of $26 billion in April 2020, one month after the onset of the novel coronavirus pandemic. Since the start of 2021, bill payment inflows ranged from a low of $32.7 billion in January to a high of $37.4 billion in June 2021.

Under Section 4 of the Payment Clearing and Settlement Act, 2010, the Bank of Jamaica (BOJ) may request information from operating entities in the national payment system. Accordingly, bill payment service providers submit monthly data to the BOJ. The data collected include monthly volumes and values for transactions relating to bills for electricity, strata payments, water, telephone, cable, embassy services, top-ups, education, Internet services, security payments and a category called other.

Payments tracked are made via cheque, cash, debit and credit cards. Total payments tracked as at December 2019 were 20.9 million transactions valued at $389.37 billion.