Susan Gordon, Business Reporter

Ryland Campbell, chairman of Capital and Credit financial services group. - File

The Capital and Credit financial services group is injecting US$5 million ($330 million) into its IT backbone as a booster shot to its operations.

By the end of year 2007, the group intends to offer Internet banking with the help of new software called Temenos 24, which it is currently installing.

Chairman Ryland Campbell said the new software should provide the company with the infrastructure to expand beyond its geographical boundaries.

"We expect that we should be implementing this by the end of January 2007 and that it will change our capability and add products and services we don't offer at the moment," said Campbell.

An immediate target group, he suggested, would be Jamaicans resident overseas.

Paperwork

The company already secures business through the Internet, but without the right IT infrastructure the follow up to enquiries entails a lot of paper work, said the company chairman.

The Capital and Credit financial group, which comprises its merchant bank, securities dealership, a fund management business and a remittance arm, operates from five locations islandwide, including a branch in Montego Bay.

"At the moment we are looking to restructure the Capital and Credit group in 2007. We are doing realignment of functions and goals," Campbell told the Financial Gleaner in a brief interview on Tuesday.

He said the realignment would be done across all four areas of the group, making processing of information and end results easier and speedier.

"Now that we can reach a greater market, we will begin to expand in new areas as we would no longer be constrained to our geographical area."

The plan includes job shufflings, but no cuts in staff size, according to Campbell.

"We do not have any immediate plans for reduction of staff, but for assignment and realignment," he said, noting that the training was being offered.

susan.smith@gleanerjm.com