The senior financial sector specialist at the World Bank, Nicholas Smith on Tuesday said Caribbean countries are lacking in the implementation of fast payment mechanisms that have proven to be a major breakthrough in business transactions globally.
“Fast payments as they are also known are everywhere now … roughly in 120 countries, but in the Caribbean we are not there yet,” Smith said at the launch of the Central Bank of Barbados (CBB) national instant payment system, named “BimPay”.
He said there are a couple jurisdictions that have some form of the payment system “and why this matters is just not to keep up with the Jones … because not having the system makes life more difficult.”
“Think about everybody’s life, your grandma, the taxis, sending money to your family . It’s a bit of an inconvenience and so it is great to see that the Caribbean is starting to take the thing in and, actually, Barbados is at the forefront of these reforms.
