By FAY SIMMONS

Tribune Business Reporter

jsimmons@tribunemedia.net

The Central Bank is seeking to put the onus on developers to produce consumer and merchant-friendly digital payments systems that encourage a shift to electronic transactions, its governor said yesterday.

John Rolle said a key part of the vision to modernise The Bahamas’ payments systems includes a seamless, interoperable arrangement where consumers can simply scan, send or tap to pay.

Speaking at the Central Bank Digital Currency Conference, he added that making payments must be made easier through an integrated system capable of processing multiple payment methods seamlessly.

“One thing that we know is very important is that the way we make payments in the future has to be simpler at the cash register,” Mr Rolle said.

“Whether you are using cash or digital cash, or you’re transferring the monies from one bank account to the next, all that we expect of the average individual is that they should be able to scan and pay, or to enter the name or the alias of the recipient of the funds and send the funds, and allow the technology to work behind the scenes to decide whether you’re paying in Sand Dollars or you’re just making a transfer from your checking account to somebody else’s checking account.”

Mr Rolle said that by shifting the complexity of designing platforms able to handle multiple payment methods to developers — and integrating those platforms behind the scenes — businesses are freed from the burden of managing multiple systems and consumers can transact more easily.

“It’s really integrating a lot more of the platforms that receive payment, and the more we do that, we also simplify the decision-making for businesses. They don’t really have to think about whether they have multiple terminals, for example, to receive payments, or that they have to put multiple plug-ins and add-ons in order to receive payment from different sources. You shift more of that burden to the developers of payment solutions to communicate in a uniform way to the payment terminals,” said Mr Rolle.

He added that the Central Bank is working to future-proof the country’s financial infrastructure and expand flexibility across cash, digital wallets and traditional banking.

“That’s the sort of vision that we were defining for where The Bahamas goes. And that really means that people then have even greater flexibility in terms of what they’re using for payments; whether it’s the credit cards, an electronic transfer from their banks or an electronic transfer from a digital wallet,” said Mr Rolle.

In the short-term, Mr Rolle said the Central Bank is continuing its drive to introduce more residents to the Sand Dollar through public education initiatives aimed at helping them understand how to complete digital transactions and safeguard themselves in the new environment.

He added that the Central Bank is still working to have the Government, the largest recipient and issuer of payments in the Bahamas, fully integrated into the Sand Dollar system.

“The area where we have continued work to do is bringing the Government along. It is very important for the Government to be fully inserted into the system in terms of being able to make payment to individuals in Sand Dollar or to receive payments from the public in Sand Dollar,” said Mr Rolle.

“The Government is the single largest recipient of payments, and the single largest issuer of payments in The Bahamas. For us, it’s important, and we have ongoing conversations with the Government in terms of how we get their systems developed to do this. Of course, being the size of the Government also means that you have greater complexity in what those systems look like.”