Jamaicans are borrowing at record amounts while keeping non-performing loans (NPLs) to three-year lows, according to the latest Bank of Jamaica (BOJ) prudential indicators.
Total gross loans outstanding increased to $468 billion or 9.8 per cent higher year on year.
The bulk of bank loans were issued by commercial banks at $361.9 billion with building societies accounting for $99.4 billion and near banks at $7.6 billion.
National Commercial Bank of Jamaica held the largest slice of loans for any institution at $148.4 billion (net of provisions) followed by Bank of Nova Scotia at $114 billion.
NPLs or loans unserviced for at least three months, across the financial sector, fell to $22.8 billion at March 2014, or down 13.9 per cent when compared with year earlier levels.
It therefore resulted in reducing NPLs as a percentage of total loans to 4.9 per cent compared with 6.2 per cent a year earlier, data indicated.
Two years earlier, NPLs surpassed $32 billion which was the highest since the financial sector meltdown in the 1990s.
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