By FAY SIMMONS

Tribune Business Reporter

jsimmons@tribunemedia.net

The Central Bank wants all regulated financial institutions to start offering “fast payments” within the next two years, its Governor confirmed yesterday, as it targets greater uptake of digital wallets.

John Rolle, speaking at the banking supervisor’s 2025 half-year and second quarter media briefing, said the Central Bank plans to further accelerate adoption of the Sand Dollar digital currency and digital banking platforms to allow for greater financial services inclusion among Family Island residents.

“We’ve given ourselves a target in the next two years to transition The Bahamas to fast payments, which means.. that the population more universally are using their smart phones and other technologies to send and receive payments in real time across the digital wallet space and the bank deposit space,” said Mr Rolle.

“We think, from a revolutionary perspective, that is going to accelerate the digital currency use, as well as other digital payments’ use, because it’s going to push all of our financial institutions in the space of providing the mobile apps for peer-to-peer and B2B business transactions.”

Mr Rolle said there must be a “greater push” towards the use of digital payments and the Sand Dollar, which can be used to solve some of the financial inclusion woes of Family Island residents.

“The issue of adoption is not just an issue of Sand Dollar adoption. There are some elements that we have to continue to work on to improve the ease of access to digital currency in terms of the business environment, as well as how people get funds in digital wallets,” he added.

“But, more important than that, in so far as we are concerned, in The Bahamas there’s a need for a greater push for the use of digital payments on the whole and that, I think some of what we’ve done in terms of the role of Sand Dollar, has improved the Central Bank capacity to tackle those issues.

“It has improved the Central Bank’s understanding of the landscape, and we feel that if we address those we are going to see results. We also believe that it’s important that whatever the resources that we achieve, they are reflected in the Family Islands, particularly in those remote island communities, because a lot of the logistical challenges that summarise as financial inclusion access tend to concentrate in those remote communities,” Mr Rolle added.

“And so, we’re also focused on how we can break through the challenges in those communities so that we can get more traction.” The Central Bank is also exploring agency banking and has recently completed a public consultation on the issue.

Mr Rolle said the feedback was “very constructive” and will be taken into consideration before releasing the final regulatory framework, but added that services will have to align with improvements to the digital infrastructure to be “most impactful”.

“We’ve just completed the public consultation, so we’re going through the feedback, and that’s going to help us make any sort of tweaks that we need to make in terms of the framework. It is expected that agency banking will make it easier for financial institutions to have contact points with customers, particularly in the remote communities,” said Mr Rolle.

“But it is still going to be the most impactful when it is cleared with all the other improvements in our digital infrastructure, because still we’re going to have to deal with the efficiency of providing services overall, as well as the resiliency of the infrastructure in the platforms that services are provided through.”

Mr Rolle said the regional cross-border payment solution facilitated by the Africa Export-Import Bank is still being organised, but it is anticipated that The Bahamas will work with regional partners to develop the platform further.

“We’re still organising ourselves in terms of how we execute at a pilot level, but the intention would be that The Bahamas, along with several of the other Caribbean countries, would set up an infrastructure where their locals can send funds directly between themselves, and those funds would be routed and settled within a facility that the Central Bank maintains with the help of Afreximbank,” said Mr Rolle.

“It would mean as well that those payments are not reliant on the traditional correspondent banking channels through which payments are being routed now to reach a lot of these countries, and it’s anticipated that if you can make a lot more of those direct payments in a multilateral setting, countries can at least reduce the gross volume of certain foreign exchange that they need for payments.

“But we anticipate that The Bahamas, along with several of the other countries, will work together, and in The Bahamas’ case it offers the potential for any of our financial institutions to do those types of tests. It will involve financial institutions in the respective countries including, in the Bahamian case, some of our digital wallet providers.”