So, a few months back, I was out here trying to buy a car like a responsible adult. Actually planning ahead instead of just walking into a dealership and winging it.

I thought, “Let me finance this through NCB.”

Solid plan.

Then I found out NCB had temporarily paused some of its newer unsecured consumer loans after seeing a spike in people falling behind on their payments.

Not “processing is slow.”

Just… paused.

Meanwhile, I was carless, still on public transport or borrowing my mom’s car like nothing had changed.

Turns out, there was a pretty good reason.

The Jamaica Observer recently interviewed NCB Financial Group CEO Robert Almeida, who explained that the bank pulled back on unsecured loans and car loans to reassess its credit models and tighten its underwriting.

Basically, NCB wanted to make sure it wasn’t giving out money to people who might struggle to pay it back… or blow their cash on party tickets, zimi?

Well now, those loans are back.

The loan book is growing again, and with a lower delinquency rate than before.

But here’s where this gets bigger than my car problem.

NCB’s total loan book fell by about $25 billion, or 4 per cent, over the past year. Meanwhile, deposits increased by almost $68 billion.

So the bank has more money coming in, but less of that money is going out as loans.

Now NCB is looking to put that money back to work through vehicle financing, mortgages and corporate lending.

So my car search was really just a small side effect of a much bigger shift happening inside one of Jamaica’s biggest banks.

NCB hit the brakes, rebuilt its lending approach and now it’s stepping back on the gas.

And as for me… Mom, you can finally have your car back.

And that’s The Bottom Line.