National Commercial Bank (Jamaica) Limited (NCBJ) is set to implement additional measures to protect its customers from fraud actors.

This was revealed by NCBJ Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Bruce Bowen at NCB Financial Group Limited’s (NCBFG) hybrid annual general meeting (AGM) held yesterday at Jamaica Pegasus hotel. NCBJ has been on an aggressive push to reduce instances of fraud against its clients who have been the victims of different fraudulent attacks.

NCBJ stopped sending out text notifications to its customers in October 2023 who were victims of phishing. NCBJ made serious inroads last year when it reduced the daily and monthly transfer limit in a bid to protect its customers. That limit adjustment ensured that most customers didn’t face drastic losses since 80 per cent of customers never transferred $150,000 in a day.

Bowen revealed at the time that NCBJ saw a 70 per cent reduction in fraud cases between October 2023 – February 2024. These moves were made to safeguard its customers who were being targeted by different forms of fraud and losing their savings.

Now, with the fraud levels reducing, NCBJ will be adding to introduce one-time codes for certain transactions, further ramp up customer education, and include new technological tools to combat fraud against customers. This is being done in line with a global strategy to introduce more best practices to NCBJ.

The move to reduce fraud coincides with NCBJ’s move to contain operational costs and improve efficiencies. NCBJ has faced an increase in operational losses over the last three years as that figure spiked from $551.42 million in 2022 to $4.37 billion in the 2024 financial year. The 2023 operational losses were adjusted from $2.24 billion to $3.42 billion, which the audited notes attributed to a system issue. NCBFG Chief Financial Officer (CFO) Malcolm Sadler said that the bank will be moving to further curtail these operational losses.

NCBFG’s first quarter report showed that net revenues from banking and investment activities improved by nine per cent to $33.91 billion due to higher yields on its interest-bearing assets. Although insurance revenue increased 21 per cent to $38.37 billion, the insurance service result only grew from $6.20 billion to $7.51 billion due to higher net expenses from reinsurance contracts as a result of greater claims recovery in the prior year. After accounting for different expenses, net operating income rose 12 per cent to $35.17 billion.

Operating expenses marginally grew six per cent to $27.74 billion largely due to a $1.3-billion jump in operational losses. Despite the increase in expenses, profit before tax moved from $5.13 billion to $7.66 billion, a 49 per cent rise. Consolidated net profit from continuing operations increased 76 per cent to $5.22 billion.

The $68-million loss from discontinued operations was attributed to divestment of Thoma Exploitatie BV by Guardian Holdings Limited (GHL) on January 14. As a result, the consolidated net profit was $5.15 billion, with $2.63 billion attributable to shareholders with earnings per share at $1.09.

Total assets marginally decreased during the quarter to $2.29 trillion as it had $899.33 billion in investment securities, $616.43 billion in net loans and advances, and $120.69 billion in cash. Total liabilities stood at $2.09 trillion, with deposits at $781.34 billion. Consolidated shareholders’ equity was $208.26 billion, with $168.17 billion attributable to shareholders.

NCBFG’s stock price closed at $49.88, the lowest price it’s been at since December 2016. That not only left the stock down two per cent in 2025, but far from the $65 price offered during the additional public offering (APO) in May 2024. This left NCBFG with a market capitalisation of $128.90 billion, leaving it as the fourth largest company on the Jamaica Stock Exchange (JSE).

Although NCBFG’s board of directors meet on Wednesday to consider a dividend, it decided to consider pushing that discussion back to a special meeting later in the second quarter. Arvinder Bharath and Howard Shearer were elected to NCBFG’s board of directors at the AGM.

AIC (Barbados) Limited, the holding company for Lee-Chin and largest direct shareholder in NCBFG, sold 9,092,308 ordinary shares on October 29 at $51.61 for a consideration of $469.25 million (US$2.95 million). A connected party of a NCBFG director sold 9 million ordinary shares on January 30 at $50 for a consideration of $450 million (US$2.85 million).

The latest NCBFG quarterly report revealed that Cornerstone Financial Holdings Limited (CFHL) was now the tenth largest shareholder with 31,854,202 ordinary shares or a 1.23 per cent stake. CFHL signed an agreement with NCBFG last June to sell a 30.20 per cent stake in Clarien Group Limited. That deal is currently subject to regulatory approval.