Anya Schnoor, chief executive officer of Scotia DBG Investments, says the Jamaica Debt Exchange Initiative will have a negative impact on the amount of money the company will be able to gobble-up in net interest income in the future and as a result, it will have to accelerate the implementation of plans to become more efficient.

The company’s net interest income – the difference between interest paid on investments and that which is earned from investing in non-productive government paper – zipped by 60.0 per cent to $995.0 million during the first quarter of this financial year, up from the $623.0 million raked-in during the previous year.

This amount, which was marginally lower than the $999.7 million garnered during the previous quarter, could fall even further under the JDX, which seeks to reduce the amount of interest paid-out by the government by $42.0 billion per annum, effective next year.

Speaking after the release of the company’s first quarter results, Schnoor stressed that the process was well under way, while pointing out that the company expected to reap significant benefits during the upcoming quarters from the re-engineering of its operating structure.

Commenting on the company’s first quarter results, Schoor posited that the strong performance was attributable to a combination of factors such as an increase in the amount of funds under management, well-managed interest margins and strong expense control.

She also pointed out that the company took the important decision to participate in the JDX during the quarter, stressing that the success of the initiative, which artificially reduces interest rates, is vital to the future of the country.

The savvy brokerage, which was recently acquired by the Scotia Group from Peter Bunting, Mark Golding, Christopher Dehring and Garfield Sinclair, as well as a host of other minority shareholders, generated net profits of $546.0 million or $1.29 per share during the quarter under review.

This amount was 42.0 per cent more than the $385.0 million or 91 cents per share pulled in during the same period of the previous year. Meanwhile, its return on average equity was a strong 27.7 per cent during the review period. These profits, which were generated on revenues of $1.1 billion, were however 25.0 per cent below the amount posted during the previous quarter.

Other revenues, which include fee-based income and net foreign exchange trading gains dipped by $16.0 million or 10.0 per cent to $142.0 million during the quarter, down from the $158.0 million reported during the same period of the previous year.