The Jamaica National Group Limited

RATING ACTION:

On March 14, 2025, CariCRIS downgraded the Jamaica national scale the Issuer/ Corporate Credit Ratings assigned to The Jamaica National Group Limited (JN Group Limited or the Holding Company) by 1 notch to jmA (Foreign Currency Rating) and jmA+ (Local Currency Rating), and reaffirmed the regional scale ratings at CariBBB+ (Foreign Currency Rating) and CariA- (Local Currency Rating). A stable outlook was assigned.

RATING SENSITIVITY FACTORS:

Factors that could, individually or collectively, lead to an improvement in the ratings and/or outlook include:

  • Improvement in the credit rating of the Government of Jamaica (GoJ), leading to an improved sovereign risk profile
  • Improvement in the credit rating of the Government of Jamaica (GoJ), leading to an improved sovereign risk profile
  • Growth in the Group’s revenue, leading to return on earning assets (ROEA) of 1.5% sustained for 2 years
  • Improvement in the Group’s cost-to-income ratio to 65% or below for at least 2 consecutive years
  • Improvement in the Group’s non-performing loans (NPLs) to gross loans to below 2.8%
  • Improvement in the Group’s tangible net worth (TNW) to total adjusted assets to 20% or above
  • Improvement in the Holding Company’s ROEA to 10% sustained for 2 consecutive years
  • Improvement in the Holding Company’s cost-to-income ratio to 65% or below for at least 2 consecutive years

Factors that could, individually or collectively, lead to a lowering of the ratings and/or outlook include:

  • Deterioration in the credit rating of the GoJ, leading to a worsened sovereign risk profile
  • Deterioration in the credit rating of the GoJ, leading to a worsened sovereign risk profile
  • Reduction in the Group’s revenue, leading to ROEA of -0.5% sustained for 2 consecutive years
  • Deterioration in the Group’s cost-to-income ratio to 115% or above
  • The Group’s NPL ratio remaining above 4.5% over the next year
  • Deterioration in the Group’s TNW to total adjusted assets to 8% or below
  • Deterioration of any of the Group’s subsidiaries’ capital adequacy ratios below regulatory requirements
  • An increase in the Holding Company’s gearing ratio to above 3 times
  • Deterioration in the Holding Company’s ROEA to -10% sustained for 2 consecutive years
  • Deterioration in the Holding Company’s cost-to-income ratio to 100% or above for at least 2 consecutive years

 

Analysts’ Contact Info:

Keith Hamlet
Mobile: 1-868-487-8356
[email protected]

Maxwell Gooding
[email protected]

www.caricris.com
[email protected]

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