The National Solid Waste Management Authority (NSWMA) has struck a deal with Bank of Nova Scotia Jamaica Limited (BNS) for some 6,000 temporary workers on the agency's payroll to receive their wages electronically.

The bank will issue debit cards to the workers, called Quick Pay, who can access their salary through the automated banking system, allowing the bank to cut down on the long lines at its branches when workers turn up to encash their pay cheques, while opening up the number of outlets from which NSWMA workers can access their pay.

For NSWMA and other companies that utilise the system, it reduces the number of cheques that accounting staff spend time drafting and issuing to workers.

The new system does not require NSWMA employees to go through the process of opening accounts with the bank, which would have required them to provide references.

But their cards will give each holder "unique" access to an account, according to Wayne Hewitt, head of retail banking at BNS.

"It's like a prepaid card. Salaries are loaded on the card and accessed via ATM or any POS machine/facility anywhere, but only to the extent of the amount loaded on the card - less whatever the cardholder has spent already, of course," Hewitt said.

Time AND MONEY SAVED

The Quick Pay product has been available for a couple of years, is available to any company and is already in use by several businesses.

Subscribers pay for the physical cards and the transfers to the cards.

"But overall, they save in terms of the cost of cheques and the opportunity cost of time," said Hewitt.

"Time is saved in two ways - accounting staff time managing large temporary payrolls, and time workers who receive cheques 'take' in going to the bank to cash them."

The bank has two basic pricing packages for Quick Pay but will negotiate special terms for large users, among which NSWMA is counted.

business@gleanerjm.com