SAGICOR Bank Jamaica Limited (SBJ) has become the latest Jamaican commercial bank to indicate that its clients will be able to use Apple Pay in the near future.

“We’re also laying the groundwork for deeper integration between eInvest and e-bank, alongside future-ready features like a digital wallet that will support CBDC transactions and, eventually,
Apple Pay,” stated Sagicor Group Jamaica Limited (SJ) in an email to the Jamaica Observer.

The Bank of Nova Scotia Jamaica Limited (BNSJ) was the first commercial bank to indicate that it intended to offer Apple Pay and Samsung Pay to its customers in September 2024. Sagicor Bank is set to be the next bank to offer the solution in a country where an estimated 36 per cent of mobile phone users use the iOS mobile operating system.

Apple Pay is currently offered in the Dominican Republic and The Bahamas while the Google Pay/Google Wallet is offered in the Dominican Republic, The Bahamas and Trinidad & Tobago. Trinidadian-based First Citizens Bank Limited officially launched Google Pay in December 2025.

Although BNSJ indicated its intention to launch Apple Pay in 2025, it has yet to be released to the wider public. National Commercial Bank Jamaica Limited (NCBJ) is the only Jamaican banking outfit to offer its own proprietary digital wallet known as NCB Pay.

Currently, some merchants don’t accept Apple Pay or other digital wallets over security concerns related to the settlement of transactions. The introduction of this offering by some Jamaican banks should reduce the resistance to it being accepted by merchants.

According to the Bank of Jamaica (BOJ) May 2025 payment bulletin, $1.14 trillion in Jamaican-dollar (JMD) transactions and US$553.21 million in United States-dollar (USD) transactions were processed in 2024 at point-of-sale (POS) terminals. The value of JMD transactions increased by 10 per cent to $516.24 billion while USD transactions at POS terminals grew 15 per cent to US$279.62 million during the first five months of 2025. There were 33,311 POS terminals installed up to May 2025.

The number of JMD debit cards was 3.80 million in May 2025 while there were 437,382 JMD credit cards. There were 25,196 USD debit cards and 45,630 dual currency credit cards as of May 2025.

Sagicor Bank relaunched its prepaid Mastercard debit card in July 2024 as part of the broader Sagicor Group digital transformation strategy. Customers are able to open new bank accounts and certificates of deposit (CD) on its online banking platform but are not able to do automated clearing house (ACH) transactions online.

“With ACH transfers on track and expanded digital investing capabilities already reducing branch visits and turnaround times, our digital transformation is delivering real efficiency and convenience. Looking ahead, our focus is squarely on helping clients extract maximum value from these technology investments using real time insights, faster execution, and greater control to make smarter decisions, respond quickly to market shifts, and capture opportunities as the economy strengthens,” Sagicor Group explained in its response on future digital upgrades for customers.

BOJ is trying to improve the acceptance of its central bank digital currency (CBDC) known as Jam-Dex. This forms part of the push to improve financial inclusion and improve commerce in the country. There is currently $260.05 million Jam-Dex in circulation, according to the BOJ’s balance sheet as of December 24.

The public can currently use only two digital wallets to transact with Jam-Dex: the Lynk mobile app from NCB’s TFOB Limited, and JN Bank’s JN Pay. The BOJ lists 2,379 merchants on its website which accept Jam-Dex as payment.

Deputy Governor Natalie Haynes, with responsibility for financial markets and payment systems, revealed at the BOJ’s December 22 press conference that the additional $1.65 million Jam-Dex that was issued in 2025 was related to a new participant entering the space but who was not fully ready to launch their solution.

She noted, “We were expecting two more [firms] to come on before year end but, of course, [Hurricane] Melissa happened so we’re looking for the last two to come on by Q1 [January to March] of next year

Sagicor Bank Jamaica Limited was added as the third wallet provider in 2023 but has not publicly launched a digital wallet. It’s added a section called digital wallet accounts to its online banking platform in 2025.

BOJ is currently working with different banks to allow for POS terminals to accept Jam-Dex. BOJ Governor Richard Byles even bluntly declared, “Jamaica lives on cash too much. It’s bad now, but I can tell you, next year this time it’s going to be even worse unless we get off this diet of cash. The way to do it is through Jam-Dex.”