NCB Financial Group Limited (NCBFG) paused lending through recently introduced unsecured consumer products for about three months after delinquencies rose, then relaunched them with tighter credit models, Chief Executive Officer Robert Almeida said.

Almeida told the Jamaica Observer in an interview last Friday, following NCBFG’s quarterly investor briefing, that the affected loan book was growing again with a lower delinquency rate. He did not identify the products, disclose the size of the portfolio or provide delinquency rates before and after the changes.

“Consumer retail, and really unsecured consumer retail, is where we were seeing the spike in our current delinquency profile,” Almeida said.