Lynk: A fintech platform for the Caribbean

National Commercial Bank (NCB) subsidiary ‘Lynk’ is marketed to be the digital payment platform for the Caribbean. It was created earlier this year under the theme to bring the company into the digital era.

Over the last couple of years, we have seen fintech companies popping up all over the world. Old models are being revamped through upstarts who are smart, effective, and hungry for change.

Financial institutions that don’t want to participate will see consumers flocking to platforms that have better user experiences and products. If we should take down south to South America, we can see companies such as Nubank, Uala, Konfio, and Neon.

All of these companies are disrupting the old conventional models. They are all bringing a breath of fresh air into the old-fashioned rigid financial system.

Patrick Hylton, CEO of National Commercial Bank Financial Group (NCBFG), talked about the main idea behind Lynk during an online investor briefing earlier this year. “It is really a digital payment app solution similar to Venmo and Cash App that customers will be able to use to send and receive money to make payments at merchants and other stores. Leveraging electronic KYC and biometrics, customers can sign up for their wallets in minutes. The idea is if you have a phone, you can Lynk,” Hylton said.

Lynk allows you to send, receive and request money from your friends within a matter of minutes. Additionally, when you request money, you don’t need to exchange bank account information each and every time. You just need to add a username and/or scan the QR code.

New Era

This is a positive move for NCB, for years customers have been urging them and other banks to make it easier to do payments and conduct business digitally. Despite the ambitions to go regional, NCB is only focusing on Jamaica at this time of writing.

Starting and scaling a fintech application can be a complicated process, there are a lot of things to think about: laws, security, scalability, etc. It will be interesting to see how far they can push this application.

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