Lasco Financial lands government contract for SME financing
Published:Wednesday | October 8, 2025 | 12:06 AM
Lasco Financial Services Limited, LFSL, says it has clinched a government contract to provide financing routes for small and medium-sized enterprises under a public-private partnership arrangement.
“We will be working with them (Jamaican government) to see how we can serve the small and medium-sized entity space in a better way; in a way that protects us, as well as the borrower, and gives us the appropriate return,” said Lasco Financial General Manager Sharlene Williams at the company’s annual general meeting.
Lasco Financial will offer the service as a new loan product, but details are still being worked out.
“We were named as the preferred bidder, but we have not yet started working with Government,” Williams indicated.
Amid a leadership transition at the company, the general manager pledged to build on that foundation by challenging the status quo, expanding revenue sources, and deepening integration between Lasco’s financial services and microfinance arms.
LFSL’s outgoing Managing Director Jacinth Hall-Tracey was praised by director and attorney Vincent Chen, who chaired the meeting in the absence of Executive Chairman James Rawle. “She took the company from only changing currency to where it is today,” Chen said.
LFSL’s assets total $4.3 billion and its capital base exceeds $2.4 billion as of the June quarter.
Rawle was said to be absent from the meeting for personal reasons.
Hall-Tracey paid tribute to past and present chairmen, including founder Lascelles Chin, who passed away in 2023 at age 86.
Hall-Tracey, in delivering her final address after two decades at the company, expressed confidence in Williams and the company’s resilience.
For Lasco Financial’s fiscal year ended March 2025, the company reported net profit of $58.6 million — a decline attributed to the temporary global shutdown of MoneyGram and ongoing challenges in the microfinance market. However, Hall-Tracey pointed to signs of recovery: consolidated income for the quarter ended June rose three per cent to $555 million, with profit after tax climbing to $40.5 million from $17 million a year earlier.
“We have all the ways to send money, spend money and receive money, which is a winning combination for the customers,” Hall-Tracey said. “But” it has been “a bumpy road to shareholder value, as you have been experiencing”, she said.
She also addressed concerns about the tax on remittance transactions in America’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act, saying: “We do not anticipate any significant disruption.” That’s because most MoneyGram transfers are already digital or card-based, she said.
During her tenure, LFSL launched digital initiatives, including the Lasco Visa card, but Hall-Tracey acknowledged the cost burden.
“Investments in digital transactions while we await the adoption come at a high fixed cost,” she said, while noting that Jamaica’s digital adoption was happening “at a snail’s pace, compared to the opportunities and compared to our neighbours”.