Digicel, Denis O’Brien’s Caribbean telco and the cash cow of his empire, has acquired a majority stake in a Jamaican electronic payments company. Digicel indicated that it will fund an expansion of Paymaster, which was founded by the former Jamaican ambassador the the US, Audrey Marks.

The company accepts bill payments for 120 Jamaican and US companies from 170 locations in Jamaica, as well as 40,000 agents in north America.

Ms Marks, who served for four years as the island state’s emissary to Washington, will remain with the business as executive chairman.

Digicel has tried to diversify from pure mobile operations in recent years, and Mr O’Brien has previously invested in other payments businesses.