By Fay Simmons

Tribune Business Reporter

jsimmons@tribunemedia.net

A local payments provider says it is “leading the charge” for agency banking in The Bahamas.

Sean Smith, SunCash’s business development manager, said it is advocating to commercial banks and the Central Bank for the implementation of agency banking so under-banked and unbanked Family Island consumers can access a broader range of financial services.

Speaking to Tribune Business, Mr Smith said SunCash currently has more than 85,000 active users and up to 125,000 clients that use its 250 banking kiosks throughout The Bahamas. He added that many Family Island users had no banking alternatives after commercial banks pulled out of their branch locations to leave a void that digital and agency banking services can fill.

“We’re the ones who are leading the charge for that simply because we’re in all of these islands when nobody else is. So we are going to be the ones who are leading that. We’re the ones who really pushed with the Central Bank. We were the ones who are knocking on all of the banks’ doors and saying: ‘We can help you in these areas’,” said Mr Smith.

“We had conversations with the commercial banks and told them: ‘In our physical stores we can facilitate everything for you’. Then we made it to the Central Bank, and they put out a new ‘white paper’ and, hopefully, next year at some point the legislation comes into light.”

Mr Smith said SunCash’s intent is not to compete with commercial banks but to partner with them to provide technical solutions to an issue that has plagued many Family Island residents.

“We’re interested in it. We’re the ones who actually initiated it, and we’re the drivers of it, most of the catalyst, because we believe that there’s a symbiotic relationship with the banks and we asked where we can partner and help each other,” said Mr Smith.

“We’re not coming to compete in their space. We couldn’t. We want to see where we can grow the market and provide the solutions through what we have in technology that supports what they have in knowledge, experience and their larger licensing.”

Mr Smith said SunCash has launched a public education initiative to familiarise communities with digital banking platforms and demonstrate that most banking services can now be offered remotely, eliminating the need for physical locations.

“Some people call it digital banking, some people call it FinTech or innovative banking. You have to look at all the services that the bank is doing, and the world is saying that those services are being evolved through technology and digital platforms that’s allowing you to achieve the same thing: Faster, easier, sometimes even more secure and cheaper,” said Mr Smith

“We’re trying to change the mindset of the people to realise what were you going in the bank to do, the rest of the world is doing from their devices. We’re trying to get consumers to see that the world is evolving, and the request that you’re aggressively making has already been addressed by the world who’s more advanced than we are.

“They’ve already moved past that, and they understand that technology has enabled us to achieve pretty much whatever you can do in the bank you could do through other platforms.”

Mr Smith added that SunCash has already received approval by Cabinet to provide banking alternatives to consumers paying for government services, as many agencies strive to become cashless.

“We’ve already been approved by Cabinet to take Road Traffic cashless by putting in solutions where the goal is for them not to accept cash any more, and so we’re in the process of rolling that out also, with the courts doing the same thing and many of the other government agencies,” said Mr Smith.

He said the company’s new $3m regional expansion will begin in Jamaica and Trinidad, and further expand the range of services local users can access digitally.

“A parent in The Bahamas would not have to go into a commercial bank to send money to their child who is a student in Jamaica. They could go to the Sun Cash App and send money. It’s still going to be going through the banking rails, but that person doesn’t have to physically move and the person in Jamaica doesn’t have to then physically go to the bank to go collect this money any more. It’s just coming through on the app itself. It’s almost like you’re in the US and you have Cash App, or you have Zelle,” said Mr Smith