Jamaican dollar transactions up at ABMs, US-dollar transactions down, says PIOJ
The volume of Jamaican dollar transactions at automated banking machines (ABMs) islandwide in 2025 increased by 35.3 per cent to $66.3 million and was valued at $1.2 billion.
This is an increase of 45.7 per cent when compared to 2024.
The information is outlined in the 2025 edition of the Economic and Social Survey Jamaica, a publication of the Planning Institute of Jamaica (PIOJ).
With respect to US dollar transactions, the PIOJ said the value of these declined at both ABM and point-of-sale (POS) terminals. Transactions processed at ABMs amounted to US$280.3 million, which was an 18.4 per cent decrease compared with 2024.
Those processed at POS terminals decreased by 1.1 per cent to 3.1 million with a total value of US$577.1 million.
The PIOJ said the number of ABMs operated under the MultiLink terminal network decreased by 16 to 900 last year. Of this number, 881 are operated by deposit-taking institutions.
“The decrease was attributed primarily to unusually high occurrence of vandalism of ABMs and damage from Hurricane Melissa,” said the PIOJ.
It shared that the largest number of ABMs on the MultiLink terminal network was reported in St Andrew (22.9 per cent), St Catherine (15.4 per cent), St James (13.0 per cent) and Kingston (12.1 per cent).
At the end of December, there were 34 151 POS terminals islandwide installed by deposit-taking institutions. This represented an increase of 7.3 per cent for POS compared with the previous year.
There were decreases in the volume and value of US dollar transactions processed by deposit taking institutions. The volume of transactions processed at ABMs decreased by 11.7 per cent to 1.0 million relative to 2024 and transactions processed at POS terminals decreased by 2.3 per cent with a value of $577.1 million.
The PIOJ said a total of $276.0 million JAM-DEX was minted and $260.1 million (94.2 per cent) issued to wallet providers at the end of 2025. There were $144.4 million (55.5 per cent) in the hands of the public and $115.7 (44.5 per cent) million in wallet providers digital vaults.
At the end of 2025, the total number of JAM-DEX® subscribers increased by 8.1 per cent to 305 026 while Lynk merchants increased by 12.1 per cent to 4 953.
At the end of the 4th quarter, the number of Jamaican
dollar debit and credit cards in circulation amounted to
3 903 691 (debit) and 435 883 (credit), an increase of 2.1
per cent and 1.2 per cent respectively, compared with 2024.
The number of US$ credit cards and dual currency cards
decreased by 1.4 per cent to 24 830 and 6.1 per cent to 39 092, respectively.