NATIONAL Commercial Bank (NCB) has urged businesses to pay staff electronically, instead of with cheques, for the month of April to avoid pay disruptions resulting from branch closures and quarantines related to the COVID-19 epidemic.

NCB, in a release, said in light of the St Catherine lockdown and the resulting closure of eight branches, companies are encouraged to use electronic means to pay employees in order to ensure that their employees will have easy access to their salaries.

Employees were also encouraged to request electronic payment from their employers.

“Given the uncertainty of the current environment, [customers] who receive payroll cheques are particularly vulnerable. In the event of branch closures, they will be unable to encash these cheques and access their pay. For companies, ACH [Automated Clearing House] transfers no longer attract a fee and RTGS [real-time gross settlement] transfer fees are waived until April 30. Customers who receive their pay electronically will have access to these funds via any of our 295 ABMs islandwide and can use their debit cards to make purchases,” said Brian Boothe, NCB’s senior general manager.

According to the commercial bank, in the same way that citizens and businesses are applying online for COVID Allocation of Resources for Employees (CARE) assistance from the Government, it is equally important that people manage their financial affairs safely from the convenience of their homes during this period.

http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/news/ncb-urges-businesses-to-pay-staff-online-this-month_192259