The NCB Financial Group (NCB) has spent an estimated $500 million on its digital money or mobile wallet product Lynk and plans to lay out even more so that the product becomes a lifestyle choice for Jamaicans.

Chief Growth Officer at the NCB Group Denise Williams shared, “Our investors have made a significant investment in Lynk, with a vision that Lynk will become ubiquitous in the lifestyles of Jamaicans. We expect to generate returns over the next few years as our user base steadily grows through the addition of attractive and innovative paid features.”

When penetration reaches optimal levels, the bank will add products for which users pay. Use of Lynk is currently free.

Lynk is a digital payment solution similar to Venmo and Cash App. Leveraging eKYC and biometrics, customers sign up for their mobile wallet in minutes.

The initiative was born in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, which resulted in a reduction of economic activity for both consumers and business customers. The groups’ profit from e-payments sank by almost $100 million to $2.3 billion. Meanwhile, the pandemic gave birth to more businesses enhancing their online presence with e-commerce — a key growth area for digital and payment services.

Williams told the Jamaica Observer that Lynk, the product, now has “approximately 400,000 app downloads and 3,000 merchants”.

The bank has disbursed $500 as incentive to users for every download, $250 for every referral, and also incentivises merchant participation.

Williams said that transactions or wallet usage has been growing, noting, “more than $500 million has been transacted on our platform. Lynk permits both cashing in and cashing out. Cashing in and out at ABMs [automated banking machines] is the latest feature on our app that was designed to ensure that more Jamaicans can have access to financial services.”

Cash available

“Anyone, even those without a bank account, has the ability to cash in and out of their digital wallet via NCB’s extensive ABM network islandwide at no cost to the customer. We expect to see a considerable upsurge in usage with this latest feature,” the chief growth officer stated.

“The unbanked and underbanked represent approximately 40 per cent of the population, according to a recent CAPRI [Caribbean Policy Research Institute research].” Lynk’s ABM Cash-in/Cash-out feature gives a fillip to this population,” Williams said.

Customers are now able to withdraw cash from the Lynk app in two main ways. Williams explained, “Customers without a bank account can utilise the approximately 300 NCB ABMs islandwide, while those with bank accounts also have the option of using our bank transfer feature to send funds to any local bank account.”

There are other ways to utilise the cash in Lynk wallets, such as top up, which is a feature to add credit to any local mobile phone instantly. There is also a bill payment feature that facilitates payments to over 100 institutions/companies in NCB’s database, including JPS [Jamaica Public Service], NWC [National Water Commission], Students’ Loan Bureau, and others.

Lynks transfer feature permits transfer of funds to any Lynk user or one of over 2,900 merchants “instantly and for free” around the clock, said Williams.

To further increase usage, the product development head outlined new features that will be launched in the coming months “which will be game changing”, including a merchant feature for larger businesses.

Williams told Sunday Finance, “Currently, we are encouraging customers, including merchants, to “level up” their Lynk usage with weekly rewards and prizes.”