Jamaica’s Payment System Accelerates Through November as JMD Cash Withdrawals Surge 32.5% and Government Bond Market Expands

• JAMCLEAR-RTGS processes 4.6 million transactions through November, worth JMD 24.5 trillion
• JMD ABM cash withdrawal values surge 32.5% year-to-date as cash demand intensifies
• POS transaction volume decline eases dramatically to just 2.8% after October’s 11.3% drop
• JMD cheque volumes fall 15.5% year-to-date as paper-based payments continue structural decline
• Government of Jamaica outstanding bonds rise 7.2% to JMD 831.14 billion
• USD dual currency cards stabilise at 39,025 after year’s earlier sharp contraction

Jamaica’s payment infrastructure maintained its forward momentum through November 2025, with JMD ABM cash demand surging at its fastest pace of the year while point-of-sale transaction declines moderated substantially — a combination that paints a picture of a financial system in which cash and digital channels are evolving in parallel rather than in opposition, with the government bond market providing a steady underpinning to the settlement infrastructure.

The Bank of Jamaica’s November 2025 Payment System Data Bulletin captures eleven months of transaction data across Jamaica’s electronic payment infrastructure. Through November, the JAMCLEAR-RTGS system — the Bank of Jamaica’s real-time gross settlement backbone for large-value interbank payments — had processed 4,625,283 transactions with a total JMD value of JMD 24.5 trillion and a USD value of US$3.01 billion. The system continued to channel the vast majority of Jamaica’s wholesale financial flows with the same institutional concentration that has characterised the 2025 series throughout the year.

ABM Cash Demand Hits the Year’s Highest Growth Rate

The standout trend in November’s bulletin is the acceleration of JMD ABM transaction growth to its highest rate of 2025. Through November, JMD ABM transactions totalled 60.64 million in volume, up 23.9 percent from 48.94 million in the same period of 2024. In value terms, the growth is even more striking: JMD ABM withdrawals reached JMD 1.10 trillion year-to-date, a 32.5 percent increase from JMD 829.09 billion in 2024. The value growth rate — 32.5 percent — surpasses the volume growth rate of 23.9 percent, indicating that Jamaicans are not only using ABMs more frequently but are withdrawing significantly larger amounts per transaction.

The breach of the JMD 1 trillion mark in year-to-date ABM withdrawal value is a notable milestone for Jamaica’s cash economy. Even as digital payment channels have expanded and the Bank of Jamaica has actively promoted cashless transactions, the sheer volume and value of cash drawn through ABMs has grown substantially in 2025. This is not a sign that Jamaica’s digital transition is failing; rather, it reflects a dual-track economy in which formal digital access — through bank accounts and cards — has expanded, enabling more Jamaicans to draw cash electronically while still using that cash in the significant informal and semi-formal economic sectors where card acceptance remains limited.

USD ABM withdrawals continued their divergent trend, falling 17.1 percent in volume and 23.3 percent in value through November — consistent with the structural decline in USD dual-currency card holdings that has persisted throughout 2025. The USD ABM decline reflects a product-level reduction in the pool of cardholders able to access foreign currency through the ATM network, rather than a collapse in demand for USD itself.

POS Decline Moderates Sharply — A Signal Worth Watching

One of the more encouraging developments in November’s data is the substantial moderation of the POS transaction decline. Through November, JMD POS transaction volumes fell just 2.8 percent year-on-year to 82.38 million, and JMD POS values declined 2.0 percent to JMD 1.11 trillion. This is a marked improvement from October’s cumulative readings, which showed POS volumes down 11.3 percent and values down 10.6 percent. USD POS transactions fell 7.7 percent in volume and 6.2 percent in value — also materially less severe than October’s trajectory.

The sudden moderation in POS decline rates between October and November suggests one of two things. Either October’s cumulative decline was partly inflated by Hurricane Melissa’s disruption to card terminal operations in affected areas, and November’s data reflects a partial recovery as storm-damaged terminals came back online; or the November 2025 POS volumes were genuinely stronger than October’s, perhaps driven by early holiday season shopping activity that boosted card spending in retail environments. POS terminal deployment itself stood at 33,797 in November 2025, up 7.4 percent from 31,455 a year earlier — confirming that the terminal rollout continues even as the per-terminal transaction intensity has been under pressure.

Cheques Continue Their Structural Decline

Jamaica’s cheque processing volumes continued to contract through November 2025, with JMD cheques falling 15.5 percent in volume to 4.64 million year-to-date, and value declining 14.2 percent to JMD 816.71 billion. USD cheques processed by the Bank of Jamaica fell 17.1 percent in volume and 16.2 percent in value, reaching 63,010 items and US$983.26 million respectively. These declines, while significant, represent a partial moderation from October’s cumulative -22.4 percent volume decline, suggesting that the base effect of prior-year cheque processing is now normalising as 2024’s own elevated volumes cycle out of the comparison period.

The directional trend is unmistakable regardless of the precise rate of decline: cheque usage in Jamaica is falling rapidly across all currency denominations. Businesses that once relied on cheques for accounts payable, supplier settlements, and intra-group transfers are migrating to direct bank transfers and electronic payment instruction systems at an accelerating pace. For Jamaica’s commercial banks, which maintain the physical infrastructure for cheque clearing, the continued volume decline reduces operational complexity and cost while freeing capacity for digital product development and deployment.

Government Bond Market Expands: JMD 831 Billion Outstanding

The November bulletin provides valuable visibility into Jamaica’s government bond market through the JAMCLEAR-CSD settlement data. Outstanding Government of Jamaica bonds recorded in the fourth quarter of 2025 reached JMD 831.14 billion, a 7.2 percent increase from JMD 775.41 billion in the fourth quarter of 2024. The growth in outstanding bond holdings was distributed across the three main investor categories: banks held JMD 294.21 billion (up approximately 9 percent), primary dealers held JMD 295.17 billion (up approximately 17.5 percent), and secondary dealers held JMD 241.75 billion (up approximately 20.7 percent).

The above-average growth among primary and secondary dealers suggests that the government bond market’s expansion in 2025 has been driven more by institutional and wholesale investors than by bank portfolios — a pattern consistent with a period of relatively high domestic interest rates, in which fixed-income instruments offer competitive returns compared with other domestic asset classes. The JAMCLEAR-CSD processed 106,000 bond market transactions through November with a JMD value of JMD 12.87 trillion and USD value of US$2.48 billion, reflecting sustained activity in the repurchase agreement (repo) and reverse repo markets that underpin Jamaica’s short-term liquidity management.

USD Cards: Stabilisation After Earlier Structural Decline

The USD card holdings data for November 2025 shows signs of stabilisation after the significant contraction observed earlier in the year. USD dual-currency cards in circulation stood at 39,025 in November, a slight uptick from October’s 38,961 and down 6.3 percent from November 2024’s 41,478. USD credit cards fell modestly to 24,893. The dual-currency card base appears to have found a floor in the 38,800–39,000 range following the sharp drop from the above-45,000 level that prevailed in the first quarter of 2025. Whether this represents a true stabilisation or merely a pause before further attrition will become clearer in December’s data.

The dual-currency card decline and the concurrent fall in USD ABM withdrawals have been among the more significant structural shifts in Jamaica’s payment landscape during 2025. Together, they suggest a contraction in the segment of Jamaica’s consumer market that actively uses USD-denominated financial products for everyday transactions — a segment that includes tourists, business travellers, returning residents, and Jamaicans with significant foreign currency income. The question for the sector is whether this contraction reflects a product rationalisation decision by the issuing banks, a genuine reduction in consumer demand for USD access products, or a combination of both.

Implications for Jamaica’s Financial Sector and Economy

November’s data confirms several durable trends in Jamaica’s payment landscape as 2025 draws toward its close. The JMD cash economy is growing, not shrinking, as measured by ABM withdrawal values — a finding that has implications for cash management, vault operations, and the logistics of currency distribution across Jamaica’s banking network. The cheque clearing system is contracting at double-digit rates, freeing operational capacity and reducing settlement risk. POS card activity, after a difficult mid-year period, is showing signs of stabilising as the terminal network expands and storm-related disruptions normalise.

For Jamaica’s real estate sector, the November data reinforces the picture of a cash-intensive economy with a growing ABM withdrawal base. Cash continues to facilitate a meaningful proportion of property-related transactions, particularly in the informal land market, in agent commissions, and in the deposit and transfer mechanics of residential property purchases where documentation standards vary widely. As the ABM network’s coverage and reliability improve through 2025 — and as JMD withdrawal values grow at 32 percent year-on-year — the infrastructure underpinning Jamaica’s property cash economy is deepening even as the formal digital payment layer also expands.

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