Susan Gordon, Business Reporter

Scotiabank Jamaica executives, from left, vice-president marketing Heather Shields, president and CEO WIlliam 'Bill' Clarke, and Diana Forti, vice-president and customer business lead, launch the bank's new credit card for small businesses, Thursday, at Jamaica Pegasus hotel, New Kingston. - Contributed

The Bank of Nova Scotia Jamaica has created two credit cards for small businesses as it continues its aggressive hunt for a bigger slice of thesmall- and medium-enterprises (SME) market.

The bank, Jamaica's largest, launched the cards Thursday, saying they offered a more direct route to financing for entrepreneurs in need of credit.

BNS exceptional customer

In a partnership with MasterCard Worldwide, from whom it recently received one of MasterCard's 16 Global Quality Gold Awards as an exceptional customer, BNS Jamaica unveiled the Scotiabank MasterCard Business and the Scotiabank AAdvantage Business Executive Mastercard.

Indicating that the offering did not entail any extensive capital injection other than advertising costs, president and chief executive officer William Clarke described the products as "the next big thing in small business."

"Our partnership with Mastercard will allow local entrepreneurs to access services to meet special business needs; and the extended facilities and benefits will allow businesses to operate more efficiently and without many of the current restrictions that they now encounter when accessing credit facilities," said Clarke.

In response to whether the new cards could be regarded as a to the loan options now offered to SMEs, the banker said 'yes', adding that he expected all existing business customers and new prospects to take up the new credit option. However, he was not prepared to comment on the projected boost in business from the initiative.

"We expect all the success that traditionally has come out of the partnership," vice-president and customer business lead for Scotiabank MasterCard Worldwide Diana Forti told Sunday Business, commenting on the new cards.

Clarke has made no secret of his intent to lock up business from the expanding SME sector, and had announced a serious thrust in building out his loan portfolio by targetting entrepreneurs.

"This is an SME strategy," Williams told clients at the spectacular launch Thursday night at the Jamaica Pegasus hotel in New Kingston.

"We want Scotiabank to be synonymous with financer for SMEs" he later told Sunday Business in a brief interview following the launch.

Clarke also said he would be announcing other initiatives in October.

Card benefits

Customers have the option of ordering up to five MasterCards for their businesses and to pay and track all their business expenses online through separate statements for each card.

They can get cash advances at over one million automated machines worldwide and use the Scotiabank credit card cheques where cards are not accepted.

Persons with the Advantage cards can get travel rewards with American Airline to over 550 destinations.

The interest rates on the business MasterCards are said to be significantly lower, according to Scotiabank's senior vice-president of electronic banking, Audrey Tugwell Henry.

Interest rates on the Jamaican dollar retail card at Scotiabank ranges from 44 per cent to 49 per cent.

Tugwell Henry said whereas the bank has set no limits on the asset base of a small- or medium-size business in determining eligibility for card application, a full credit assessment of the strength of the business and its principals' credit history is done. The credit limit on the cards will be driven by the business's ability to pay, as with regular retail credit cards.

The business projections and scope for growth are also taken into account.

"We are the first bank with the MasterCard brand in Jamaica to offer a biz [business] card," Tugwell told Sunday Business.

Testing of the product was done, she said, to ensure acceptability in local and international markets prior to the launch.

However, the cards are only being issued to residents of Jamaica. Even where persons travel to and from other countries, they must be regarded as residing in Jamaica.

The bank, she said, did not employ additional persons to facilitate the servicing of the cards. An existing sales team was trained for this purpose.

Clarke is urging clients of the cards to be judicious in their consumption of credit.

"It is very easy to take credit, but it is not so easy to repay credit," he warned.

susan.gordon@gleanerjm.com