A combination of competitive interest rates and new technological additions continues to fuel Scotia Group Jamaica Limited’s (SGJ) consolidated loan book that stands at $340.57 billion (US$2.11 billion) as of July 31.

“At the beginning of my presentation I spoke about the focus on our clients and that client primacy is a key strategic focus for us. We have a large client base, [and] we’re working closely with our clients to meet their needs. So, what you’re seeing is we’re having significant increases — as Yyvett [Anderson] mentioned in new client requests for loan products. At the same time, we’re also experiencing good growth because our clients are placing their deposits with us,” stated Audrey Tugwell Henry, president and chief executive officer (CEO) of SGJ at Monday’s media briefing.

Scotia Group’s consolidated loan portfolio stood at $205.52 billion in October 2021, with the Bank of Nova Scotia Jamaica Limited (BSNJ), the country’s second-largest commercial bank by assets, accounting for $187.50 billion of this loan portfolio. Since that period BNSJ has stepped up its lending stance, with the personal and credit cards segment, and business and government segment rising by more than one third since then. BNSJ’s residential mortgage portfolio has doubled as well over the last four years, from $27.99 billion in 2021 to $83.59 billion in 2024. SGJ’s consolidated mortgage portfolio exceeded $107 billion in April 2025, which propelled it to the top as Jamaica’s largest banking mortgage provider.

The non-performing loans or non-accrual loans also remain under $5 billion and represent 1.4 per cent of gross loans as of July 2025.

Data from the Bank of Jamaica (BOJ) also revealed that BNSJ’s loan book grew by $25.45 billion, or nine per cent, to $317.31 billion between September 2024 to June 2025. That was the highest loan growth amongst the eight commercial banks that had a $55.50-billion rise in loans to $1.379 trillion over the same time. BNSJ’s deposit base also grew $46.55 billion to $535.40 billion relative to the market’s $151.44 billion rise to $1.94 trillion.

“So, we’re seeing positive shifts in our market share. We are very well positioned to take on new clients. The strategy of client primacy is one that allows us to look at our existing clients, see how much business they’re doing with us, and go after the other areas of business that we’re not serving them in or to get a deeper wallet share from our clients,” Tugwell Henry added.

The expanded loan portfolio comes against the backdrop of a smaller physical branch footprint. Scotia Group’s banking and investment branches stood at 38 locations in October 2014. That branch footprint has now shrunk to 28 locations with 15 being full-service locations, 11 digital branches (no cash or cheque transactions done inside), and two sales centres.

Scotia Group has instead invested millions into improving the digital offerings for customers through its mobile application and online banking portal. That has resulted in 98 per cent of total retail transactions being done in a digital or non-branch space while the overall commercial bank has 95 per cent of transactions being done digitally. Some of the tools used to enable this ease of doing business include Scotia Access and eConsent, which allow for customers to communicate with Scotia officers and sign for documents without needing to go in branch. Online wire transfers for retail customers should become available in 2026.

“Our digital play really is [centred] around making it easier for our clients to do business with us. We recognise that as we continue to grow it’s difficult to operate in a manual environment, so part of the plans for digital over the many years was to make sure that we can make it very easy for our clients to do business with us. A lot of client-centric focus and thought go into how we deploy digital to the market. Sometimes we take a little longer than the market would like but we want to make sure that we get it right,” the Group CEO noted.

Higher financial performance

These digital moves have been positive for SGJ’s consolidated interest income which grew seven per cent to $13.28 billion for the third quarter (May to July). The increase in this line item was supported by the 17 per cent year-on-year rise for its Scotia Plan loan portfolio while the residential mortgage portfolio improved 22 per cent.

Even with higher interest expense costs and expected credit loss (ECL) provisions, the net interest income after expected credit losses improved seven per cent to $11.77 billion. Total operating income rose nine per cent to $16.25 billion, largely due to improved net insurance revenue, net fee and commission income, and net gains on foreign currency activities.

However, operating expenses jumped 15 per cent from $7.11 billion to $8.16 billion as staff costs grew 17 per cent to $3.48 billion while other expenses increased 14 per cent to $3.91 billion, due to increased technical service expenses and cash transportation costs.

This resulted in profit before tax (PBT) rising three per cent to $8.09 billion. After taxes, net profit increased two per cent to $5.55 billion, with earnings per share (EPS) of $1.79.

For the overall nine-month period, consolidated interest income rose eight per cent to $38.47 billion, with net interest income after ECLs growing 11 per cent to $34.77 billion. Total operating income grew 11 per cent to $48.40 billion due to higher net insurance revenue, net fee and commission income, and net gains on foreign currency activities. SGJ’s segment report revealed that net external revenues for the retail segment rose 15 per cent to $19.41 billion.

Operating expenses increased 16 per cent to $26.18 billion due to a 20 per cent rise in staff costs to $10.67 billion and 13 per cent rise in other operating expenses to $11.43 billion. This resulted in PBT rising seven per cent to $22.23 billion. The retail segment experienced a 25 per cent rise in PBT to $3.29 billion, with insurance services growing 11 per cent to $3.54 billion. After accounting for higher taxes, net profit increased five per cent to $14.76 billion with the trailing 12 months’ EPS at $6.72.

SGJ is the parent company of BNSJ and the Scotia Jamaica Building Society. SGJ is a subsidiary of the Bank of Nova Scotia which trades under the Scotiabank name.

Scotiabank has pushed a four-pillar strategy, since December 2023, to improve client relationships across the globe. These four pillars include:

• grow and scale in priority businesses

• earn primary client relationships

• make it easy to do business with us and

• win as one team.

As a result, Scotia Group Jamaica has been moving to unlock different elements of its financial service business to ensure they complement other business lines. The growth in BNSJ’s loan book has been a massive win for Scotia General Insurance Agency Limited (trading as ScotiaProtect) which has seen a 65 per cent rise in gross written premiums that have exceeded $1 billion, with revenues rising 75 per cent and net profit increasing 123 per cent for the nine-month period. Also, Scotia Jamaica Life Insurance Company Limited has seen an increase in the creditor life policies related to the growth in BNSJ’s credit products, while also growing its non-creditor life products that have been facilitated by a strong omnichannel approach. Even Scotia Investments Jamaica Limited saw its assets under management (AUM) rise by 12 per cent over the period while introducing real time statement monitoring in the BNSJ mobile app.

Scotia Group’s total assets grew seven per cent to $752.76 billion over the nine months, with investment securities at $167.75 billion and cash resources at $191.98 billion. Total liabilities increased seven per cent to $605.83 billion with deposits totalling $519.11 billion. Shareholders’ equity increased six per cent to $146.93 billion, which translates to a book value of $47.22. BNSJ’s capital adequacy ratio was 14.53 per cent, with all of the key regulated subsidiaries exceeding their regulatory benchmarks.

SGJ closed Tuesday at $54.57, leaving the stock up two per cent in 2025 with a market capitalisation of $169.79 billion. This means SGJ has a price-to-earnings ratio of 8.12 times and a price-to-book ratio of 1.16 times. SGJ declared a dividend of $0.45, totalling $1.40 billion, to be paid on October 17 to shareholders on record as of September 25. This brings the total amount payable for the year to $1.80 for a dividend yield of 3.28 per cent.

Resource in Motion Limited has purchased an additional 1,649,767 ordinary shares over the nine months to bring its total interest to 40,038,798 ordinary shares as the fifth-largest shareholder. PAM – Pooled Equity Fund sold 105,000 shares over the same period to remain the tenth-largest shareholder with 11,350,938 ordinary shares. SGJ Director Vernon Douglas bought 8,883 shares on June 12 while SGJ Director Aileen Corrigan bought 12,000 shares on June 19.

TUGWELL HENRY…the strategy of client primacy is one that allows us to look at our existing clients, see how much business they’re doing with us, and go after the other areas of business that we’re not serving them in or to get a deeper wallet share from our clients.