The central bank of Jamaica is urging all commercial banks to participate in the full roll-out of digital currency by the end of December 2023, but technical difficulties among large merchants have so far hampered the process.
At a meeting of the Public Administration and Appropriations Committee (PAAC) on Wednesday, which met to discuss the Government’s fiscal policy paper for 2022/23, governor of the Bank of Jamaica (BOJ) Richard Byles explained that successful roll-out of the central bank digital currency (CBDC) Jamaica Digital Exchange (Jam-Dex) requires getting merchants on board, an effort which the commercial banks have to undertake since these are their customers.
The only institution which has fully operationalized the use of the CDBC so far is National Commercial Bank (NCB). Jamaica National Bank has been testing a mobile wallet since September, and is likely to come on stream by the end of this year, the governor advised.
“Small merchants aren’t a problem, you can use a phone [but] for merchants who have a point of sale machines, and retail systems that tie back into their inventory, the software for that has to be adjusted. I will claim responsibility for not assessing that this would be a challenge to overcome. Also, all the ATM machines have to be adjusted to be able to dispense CBDC and to exchange it for cash. So those are significant technical issues even for NCB, but also for the other banks that have merchants with POS, as well as ATMs. There is some capital cost but doesn’t believe it is such that the banks would resile from adopting the currency,” Byles told the PAAC.
St Catherine Southern Member of Parliament Fitz Jackson, who has been vocal over the years about the need for transform banking policies, said he noted no sense of excitement in the transacting world, either by the consumers, or merchants.
“The advantages are clear but if you don’t have people coming on board but whatever advantages that there may be won’t be achieved, so it would be a good idea that will never manifest,” he remarked.
Source-Observer
