Joan Duncan

Joan Duncan was pioneer of the Jamaican money market.It was her dream to start a
company where any Jamaican could walk in off the street, take a few hundred dollars
out of his or her pocket and invest it. She wanted all Jamaicans to take part in
the money market.In 1992, Joan Duncan virtually created the local money market with
the inception of Jamaica Money Market Brokers Ltd. Within no time, her company
became Jamaica’s biggest money market trader.Joan Duncan began her career in
banking in 1973 when she joined the Workers Savings and Loan Bank as a credit
officer. She would work there for fifteen years in operations, credit, financial
control and eventually as investment manager. Toward the end of the 1970s, Joan
decided to further her education. She uprooted her children and moved to Canada
where she studied and worked, eventually earning her B.Sc. in commerce from
Concordia University where she received a Gold Medal Award in Finance. Later still,
she read for the MSc in Accounting from the University of the West Indies. It was
during the latter years of the 1980s, while manager of NCB Investments, that she
recognized the need for the development of the money market. She continually
pressed her employer and other players in the financial sector to enter this
market, but met with continual resistance. Eventually, like the ‘Little Red Hen’,
Joan Duncan knew she would have to do it herself. She established JMMB in 1992 as a
joint venture among the National Development Bank, Mutual Security Bank, Jamaica
Producers Ltd, Jamaica Venture Fund and Antrim Ltd. Dr Noel Lyon, of the Jamaica
Venture Fund, and JMMB Chairman, was her most ardent supporter from the start.
Today, JMMB is widely considered as responsible for the development of the
secondary market in debt securities in Jamaica. In 1994, the company was appointed
as one of the first seven primary dealers for the Bank of Jamaica. Many more
achievements and innovations were to follow. When Joan Duncan died at the age of
58, her dream, her company had realized a solid capital base of $190 million and
boasted four branches with over 20,000 accounts.