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MEETING: JN Members in Westmoreland turned out to hear about how they can help JN to move forward at a meeting held at the Negril Hills Golf Club in Negril, Westmoreland on Wednesday, October 19, 2016. At lectern is Earl Jarrett, General Manager of the Jamaica National Building Society.

HUNDREDS OF members of the Jamaica National Building Society (JNBS) have been turning out for a series of meetings with the Society’s leadership, to receive more information about the proposed changes, which will approve the reorganisation of the JN Group; confirm the organisation’s conversion to a commercial bank; and submit their proxy votes.

JNBS met with its members in its birthplace, Westmoreland, on October 19. This was followed by meetings with overseas members, hosted by the JNBS Representative Office, in Toronto, Canada, on October 21; as well as, in New York, USA, on October 22, where its subsidiary, JN Money Services, has an American incorporated company.

PROPOSED

Members’ meetings are also being held in St James, Manchester and Kingston, Jamaica; in The Cayman Islands on November 2 and Florida, USA on November 5. The organisation will subsequently hold a Special General Meeting in Kingston, Jamaica on November 14, at which its members will vote for the proposed changes.

JN Members, located in Jamaica and overseas, have already started to submit their votes, by completing proxy forms which allows them to assign someone else, such as the Chairman of the JNBS Board, Oliver Clarke; or General Manager, Earl Jarrett, to cast votes on their behalf, if they are unable to attend the November 14 SGM.

The Society has been making the forms available via a webpage on its website, www.jnbs.com/jnvotes, and in booklets distributed at meetings.

“Members are very excited about the changes, which will, in the final analysis, position our organisation to meet their demands for more banking services and make JN a more flexible and modern entity,” Mr Jarrett underscored.

The changes have been met with positive reactions from persons at the meetings, who have expressed satisfaction with the operations of the Society.

“As we move through this transition stage, I can only say we have come a long way, and together, we can continue to move forward,” said Lorretta Graham, a 50-year member of the Society, in Westmoreland.

TOGETHER

“Tomorrow is gone, today is here, and we are poised for better things, therefore, as we work together and give our support, we can expect better days,” she affirmed.

Under the proposed changes, which were approved by the Minister of Finance a year ago, JN will remain a mutual organisation, which means it will continue to be owned by members. In the proposed structure, their mutual rights will be preserved in a new mutual holding company, which will own all the entities in the restructured JN Group.

JN will separate its non-financial and financial companies, for regulatory purposes, into two sub-holding companies, which will both be owned by the mutual holding company.

JNBS is the largest building society in Jamaica, and operates Representative Offices in the United Kingdom, the USA and Canada. As at March 31, 2016, the Society held assets of $134,651,779,000, making it the third largest licensed deposit-taking institution in Jamaica.

The JN Group consists of several companies, including: JN Small Business Loans Limited, JN General Insurance Company Limited, JN Fund Managers Limited, JN Life Insurance Company Limited, JN Money Services Limited, Management Control Systems Limited, The Jamaica Automobile Association (Services) Limited, and JN Cayman, among other subsidiaries in the JN Group.