Loans Jamaica

As it did in November 2009, FirstCaribbean International Bank has once again announced a lowering of its base lending rate. Effective July 1, 2010, FirstCaribbean International bank Jamaica will cut its prime lending rate by two percentage points, lowering it to 18.25%. The bank has attributed the move to the success of the debt swap in February, and the performance of interest rates.

Clovis Metcalfe, managing director of FirstCaribbean Jamaica, issued a short statement announcing the adjustment. According to him … “FirstCaribbean is committed to providing access to affordable lending to all sectors of the economy … This two-point reduction in our prime base rate comes within the context of the success of the Jamaica Debt Exchange (JDX) and the correlated stability in interest rates over the past few months.”

Under the JDX programme, FirstCaribbean Bank exchanged approximately $2.3 billion of its domestic bond for lower-yielding securities, and while interest income earned from those securities were expected to be affected negatively, the bank had noted that management was actively pursing income diversification as part of its strategic objectives to offset the reduction. Additionally, the bank’s move follows the June 17 adjustment of the Bank Of Jamaica’s (BOJ) policy rate to 9.0%. A day before, the benchmark Treasury bill was also lowered – by 65 basis points – to yield 9.26 per cent in the BOJ-managed monthly auction.