ABM and point-of-sale (POS) Jamaican-dollar transactions processed by deposit-taking institutions last year grew to $1.77 trillion —11 per cent above the $1.59 trillion recorded in the previous year.

The details contained in Economic and Social Survey of Jamaica (ESSJ) 2023, recently published by Planning Institute of Jamaica (PIOJ), shows that of the total transactional value, the bulk — or little over $1 trillion — was processed at point-of-sale terminals while the remaining $774.2 billion was transacted at ABM terminals.

“At POS terminals both the volume and value of transactions increased, the former by 31.3 per cent to 66.3 million while the value of transactions processed increased by 15.0 per cent to $1,001.6 billion,” the survey found.

The total volume for Jamaican-dollar transactions, which also increased by $120 million, was almost 10 per cent above the $109.6 million in 2022. With respect to US-dollar transactions, the volume processed at POS terminals decreased by 12.8 per cent to $4.2 million, relative to 2022, while transactions processed at ABMs increased by 20.7 per cent with a value of US$358.7 million.

The total value for US-dollar transactions in 2023 was $1.23 trillion

The number of ABM terminals operated under the MultiLink terminal network decreased by one to 908 as the distribution by parish remained unchanged in 2023. MultiLink members include commercial banks and non-bank financial institutions such as credit unions and building societies.

Based on the data presented, St Andrew housed the most machines, accounting for some 27 per cent or 254 of the total amount. This was followed by St Catherine with 138 ABMs or 15 per cent of the total amount, and St James with 109 or 12 per cent of total amount. The parish of Kingston, which ranked at fifth, following St Ann which had 73, housed approximately 71 ABMs or almost eight per cent of the total amount. The parish having the lowest number of ABMs was Portland with 16, accounting for 1.8 per cent of the total number of terminals scattered islandwide.

“The network of ABMs installed by deposit-taking institutions increased by 5.1 per cent to 866 while that for POS terminals decreased by 41.7 per cent to 28, 899. The electronic banking network was challenged by a number of disruptions, including destruction of machines and theft, which affected service delivery,” the survey noted.

The banking industry, plagued by a series of attacks on teams from Beryllium security company — its primary cash courier and security service partner — last year, coupled with damages to some of its ABM infrastructure, has since had to invest more to enure the safety of its machines and also how it delivers service to customers.

According to the report, the number of Jamaican-dollar credit and debit cards in circulation amounted to 408,918 and 3,722,201 — an increase of six per cent and a decrease of 24.6 per cent, respectively.

“The number of US$ credit cards increased to 24,992 (2.3 per cent) and that of dual currency cards increased to 38,712 (7.9 per cent),” the data further outlined.

Also reporting on the progress of the central bank digital currency (CBDC) — Jam-Dex — the PIOJ annual publication said the currency, now in its second year of a five-year roll-out plan, progressed with 263,341 registered wallet users, inclusive of over 3900 registered merchants on the Lynk platform last year.

“At the end of 2023 the total Jam-Dex minted was $276.0 million, of which $257.2 million was in circulation,” the ESSJ report indicated.