JN Financial Group, the parent company of all financial service providers in The Jamaica National Group, says the ONE JN Passport will have a very positive impact on financial inclusion.

A high percentage of Jamaicans remain unbanked and underbanked according to central bank findings.

The Bank of Jamaica’s (BOJ) National Financial Inclusion–Demand Side Study Final Report, published in January, stated that nearly 23 per cent of Jamaicans still do not have a bank account and a further 6.3 per cent are underbanked. Most are lower income and live in rural Jamaica.

“We recognise this, and so financial inclusion was at the heart of the creation of the Passport service,” commented Claudine Allen, ONE JN Programme Director, who oversaw the project to build out the intelligent application.

“It makes financial services much more accessible and convenient, so that persons aren’t restricted to branches and offices, and can acquire financial services, faster and easier by passporting their data across entities within the JN Financial Group,” she underscored.

Approved by the BOJ, the technology, aptly called the ONE JN Passport, enables users to conveniently and securely, provide their personal information once, then use it multiple times to access services such as JN Bank unsecured loans and regular savings accounts.

The Passport service is delivered through an intelligent app that accommodates convenient updating of personal records by simply downloading and creating a profile in the app. There is no need for customers to visit a JN Bank branch.

Currently, after onboarding, persons can open regular savings accounts in any currency, as well as apply for unsecured loans. The Passport will, in time, also offer access to services of other companies in the JN Financial Group – JN Fund Managers, JN General Insurance, JN Life Insurance, JN Money and JN Cayman.

Having completed the JN onboarding process in the Passport, users who need to conduct new business with other member companies of the JN Financial Group will not need to provide their information and documents, once they are current. They can simply proceed to acquire the product they desire.

“In short, the Passport, as its name suggests, creates a single ‘JN identity’. This certainly eliminates lots of paperwork and essentially speeds up access,” said Allen.

The ONE JN Passport has commenced with JN Bank, Ms Allen noted, but she emphasised that the technology is not a banking app and does not allow persons, once onboarded, to access their bank accounts and to transact on their accounts.

In its current form, the app leverages information provided to shorten product application processes, for instance, enabling submission of loan applications and supporting documents and receive approval decisions in mere minutes. If the loan application is successful, the funds will also be disbursed as instructed by the applicant.

“We have created the JN Passport so that Jamaicans don’t need to sacrifice working hours waiting to be seen or produce multiple sets of the same documentation every time they want to do business,” she said.

The ONE JN Programme Director further outlined that the technology also reduces the cost to provide and access financial services, pointing to the elimination of costly paperwork and the reduction in processes to acquire financial products.

“There is no need to photocopy ID or TRN, for example. You take a photo with your phone, and we can validate your ID against government databases. That’s faster and convenient and saves both the organisation and the customer time and money,” she explained.

“The whole point of the ONE JN Passport is to really get to know customers and use that knowledge to make business easier for them. That is the power of the app. In so doing, it positions any Jamaican to maximise their growth potential and financial security, wherever they are.”

The ONE JN Passport can be downloaded from the Google Play Store for Android devices and from the App Store for Apple (iOS) devices. A mobile site is also available via onejnpassport.com.