LASCO Financial Services Limited has registered a company in Barbados and secured international money transfer agreement with MoneyGram International to provide remittance services there.

The company notified the Jamaica Stock Exchange (JSE) that it is expected to begin trading by the end of calendar year 2012.

This brings Lasco Financial a step closer to fulfilling its plan to expand its remittance division to Barbados and other key markets in the Eastern Caribbean as well as the key diaspora markets in the United Kingdom and South Florida, following its near-$60 million initial public offering in late 2010.

Last December, Lasco Financial closed on a $38-million deal to take over MoneyGram remittance operations of Supreme Ventures Financial Services Limited (SVFSL), which offered services through over 88 locations including the Supreme Ventures regional retail centres, sub-agents and select Post Offices.

Lasco Financial Service Limited already, at the time, was also an agent of MoneyGram with over 50 locations operating.