Sheree Martin has taken the helm of National Commercial Bank Jamaica with a mandate to restore stronger growth while improving the experience of customers who remain frustrated by service delays, bank fees and access to credit.

She distilled her first-year agenda into four priorities:

“It’s growth. It’s certainly efficiency as an institution. It’s customer experience, and it’s culture.”

Martin, the first woman formally appointed to lead NCB Jamaica, said the bank’s strategy will balance expansion with tighter risk management. During an interview on Taking Stock, she pushed back on the idea of a bank-wide lending shutdown.

“It wasn’t a wholesale freeze,” she said. “It had to do primarily with certain patterns and trends we were observing around asset quality and deterioration in certain segments.”

According to Martin, the slowdown was concentrated in products and customer segments where the bank was seeing signs of deteriorating loan quality. Smaller unsecured consumer loans were among the areas of concern, particularly where pricing did not adequately reflect the risk of default.

The bank also reassessed some pre-approved offers after hurricane-related disruptions affected employment and household income. NCB has since recalibrated its credit models, tightened some requirements and adjusted pricing.

Martin said demand for credit remained strong throughout the review. Lending has resumed, particularly in mortgages and motor-vehicle loans.

“The growth we’re seeing year-over-year in those products has been phenomenal and more in keeping with what we’re accustomed to seeing pre-COVID.”

For customers, the shift means NCB is actively lending again, but applicants may be asked to provide more information and satisfy stricter qualification standards. Interest rates may also vary more closely according to the bank’s assessment of each borrower’s risk.

Access to financing is only one part of Martin’s agenda. She also faces pressure to improve customer service, reduce friction across NCB’s digital channels and respond to complaints about fees.

Martin acknowledged that customers expect faster resolution of problems and more reliable service. She also recognized why bank charges remain contentious when customers do not believe the service matches the price.

“Every fee is ultimately somebody’s hard-earned money … and I’ve always said that you don’t mind paying for a service if the service is good.”

Her challenge will be translating internal changes into improvements that customers can see and measure—shorter wait times, quicker complaint resolution and digital services that work consistently.

The transition to online banking also creates an inclusion challenge. While digital channels can lower costs and improve convenience, seniors, rural customers and people who still rely on branches must not be left behind. NCB will have to balance greater automation with access to human support.

Fraud and cybersecurity are another priority. Social-engineering scams increasingly target customers directly, while banks face pressure to strengthen monitoring and respond quickly when suspicious transactions occur. Martin said NCB is investing in stronger systems, analytics and customer education, but customers must also protect their credentials and treat unexpected requests for account information with caution.

Her performance will also matter to investors. NCB Jamaica is the core banking operation within the publicly listed NCB Financial Group. Stronger loan growth, better asset quality and more efficient operations could support group earnings, shareholder value and sustainable dividend payments.

NCB Financial Group’s share price has already staged a significant recovery, although it remains below its recent peak. Sustaining that improvement will depend on whether the bank can grow without repeating the loan-quality problems that caused it to slow lending in the first place.

Martin is therefore pursuing two goals at once: making NCB easier for customers to use and making its growth more disciplined. The test will be whether customers notice the difference—and whether the bank can turn those improvements into stronger, more consistent returns.

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