Parris Lyew-Ayee (second right), chairman of the JN Foundation congratulates Russell Barrett (right) who is the Oliver Clarke Graduate Scholarship recipient. Sharing in the moment are the Hon. Earl Jarrett (left), deputy chair and chief executive officer of The Jamaica National Group and Claudine Allen, general manager of the JN Foundation.
Twenty-five-year-old Russell Barrett, who resides in St Elizabeth, is the recipient of the Oliver Clarke Graduate Scholarship, which was awarded to celebrate the life and legacy of the late chair of the board of directors of The Jamaica National Group, a media mogul and Jamaican business stalwart.
Russell, a senior public procurement officer of the Southern Regional Health Authority, said that being selected as the first recipient of the prestigious scholarship was an overwhelming and grateful feeling.
Earl Jarrett, CEO of JN Group.
The JN Group experienced a very significant increase in loans and deposits during the financial year ending March 2020.
Deposits increased by approximately $10.4 billion to $139.8 billion, while its loan portfolio rose 13.6 per cent during the financial year to $110.8 billion.
The company attributed the increase in the loan portfolio to significant growth in mortgages, personal loans and auto loans, driven by its commercial banking arm, JN Bank, which experienced a close to 15 per cent growth in loans from $89.6 billion to 102.9 billion.
“That’s accounted for by the fact that the bank sought to expand its loan portfolio and balance the loan portfolio to reduce the concentration on mortgages by offering other loans, and they have also been very clever with some of the products that they have put on the market, which was attractive to persons and they targeted many persons who were underserved in the existing banks,” chief executive officer,
CEO of Jamaica National Group Earl Jarrett.
The Jamaica National Group made intense capital investments during the financial year ending March 2020, as it sought to further strengthen the group’s operations, improve service to members and to its employees, as well as expand its reach.
Among the intense investments was the expenditure of £25 million to establish a digital ‘challenger’ bank in the United Kingdom. The set up allows customers to open an account in a mere five minutes and access a loan in 11, as long as they provide the requisite documents.
“Many of you will recall the factors that led to that decision, which was really the absence of correspondent banking services, as you have all come to learn over the past year or two, in the UK we were literally chased out of banks, as no one wanted to bank a Caribbean entity,” Earl Jarrett, chief executive officer, told some 459 members and guests during the JN Group’s 4
JN Group makes heavy capital investments to strengthen operations, improve service and expand reach voice-online.co.uk - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from voice-online.co.uk Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.