In an effort to to make loans more serviceable in the current difficult economic climate, the Jamaica National Building Society (
JNBS) has dropped the upkeep savings component of its mortgage payments. The largest building society in Jamaica took the decision to phase out the upkeep savings component of monthly mortgage payments on existing accounts to ease the repayment burden of mortgagors. The upkeep savings component on new mortgages was discontinued from January of 2009.
Statistics released by the Bank of Jamaica show that non-performing loans — loans unserviced for over 90 days — among the four local building societies were $5.5 billion or 6.4 per cent of gross loans at the end of March 2011, around the same level at the corresponding period last year.