By Javaughn Keyes
Bank of Jamaica has suspended the remittance operating licences issued to Paymaster (Jamaica), for its operation as a "Remittance Primary Agent".
In a notice Wednesday, the central bank says this took effect July 5.
The BOJ says this means Paymaster is "no longer authorised to offer remittance services as a Primary Agent".
It is not clear for which international remittance entity the service is being suspended, however over the years, Paymaster has offered overseas money transfer services for Ria, MoneyGram, Boss Money and Xoom by Paypal.
The central bank says "no remittance services will be offered at nineteen (19) of Paymaster locations" which hold the "primary agent" designation.
Paymaster has more than 60 locations in operation nationally.
It says, however, Paymaster continues to operate as a sub-agent of six Remittance Primary Agents, and therefore will offer remittance services through these sub-agent arrangements at 47 locations.
The BOJ adds that Paymaster is still authorised to test its MyCash mobile wallet in Bank of Jamaica Fintech Regulatory Sandbox.
MyCash may continue to utilise the payment service, with the exception of the feature - "disbursement of inbound remittance to wallet".
Paymaster responds
In response, Paymaster says the suspension was linked to what was described as "a breach of Paymaster's record keeping requirements".
However, It says that the suspension only applies to a very small part of its business, specifically primary agent services supplied to a single overseas provider.
It clarified that all its locations are still offering remittance services to Lasco and JMMB Money Transfer.
Paymaster says following a system error, it "advised the BOJ of the issue", and since then, there was ongoing communications with the central bank.
It says "this is the first notification of non-compliance (for them) to warrant immediate suspension by the BOJ".
Paymaster says it is taking the matter very seriously and it is fully committed to understanding and addressing the issues raised by the BOJ.
The company's bill payment services are also not affected.
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