NBSC confident in its mortgagors

Dunbar McFarlane

Monday,  January 17, 2005

Newly appointed General Manager of National Building Society Cayman (NBSC), Dunbar McFarlane said that his institution is immediately prepared to meet the demand for mortgages that now exists in Cayman.
Speaking of the Society’s goals as he takes the helm at the Island’s only registered building society under Cayman Islands’ laws, Mr McFarlane said that the Society’s parent company, Jamaica National Building Society (JNBS), and NBSC, are approaching the market with the utmost interest in “playing our role in the rebuilding process that is ahead for home owners and businesses here.”

Traditionally, Building Societies become mortgagees through the financial base created from requisite deposits from members of the Society and mortgagors. 

“Even though NBSC does not itself yet have the funding base from normally required deposit-taking activities, JNBS has displayed extreme confidence in the local market by providing the necessary funding for the immediate disbursement of mortgages,” Mr McFarlane explained.

“We can’t wait, given the demand for mortgages,” Mr McFarlane said, adding that NBSC will seek to develop the institution through its relationship with mortgagors while also using the time to grow the deposit base.

Because “most well-thinking people see home ownership as a matter of high priority,” said Mr McFarlane, he went on to propose that this urgent need that persons now have for mortgages to rebuild homes and businesses has also brought to the fore that “saving for a rainy day can no longer be regarded as a cliché.”

Mr McFarlane said that the Society already serves many customers in this market through its remittance services to most countries including the United Kingdom, Canada, the United States and Jamaica. 

Consequently, he feels confident that with the strengthening of mortgage services, the bank’s current, combined portfolio of activities will redound to the benefit of its deposit portfolio.

The JNBS Group, based in Jamaica, operates the Caribbean’s leading building society, Jamaica National, which showed Balance Sheet assets of just under US$1 billion at the end of November 2004.

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