Sand Dollar usage low; Central Bank looks to ramp up adoption

One year since its nationwide rollout, usage of The Bahamas’ – and the world’s – first central bank digital currency (CBDC) Sand Dollar is still low, Central Bank of The Bahamas Governor John Rolle said.

In May, the Central Bank revealed to Guardian Business that its monthly average for usage was 1,100 transactions with a $23,000 value.

Rolle said in the coming months the bank and its Sand Dollar-authorized financial institutions (AFIs) intend to ramp up public education, with the hope of getting more Bahamians to use the digital currency.

“Usage is still low because there’s a lot of product development I think at the financial institutions level,” he said. “We are at the stage now where, in coordination with all of the participants, our public education and awareness campaign will begin to ramp up and it will be the signal to the public that you know they can become more engaged in this process.”

There are presently nine AFIs which became fully interoperable this summer, meaning that mobile wallet holders could send and receive funds between payment service providers (PSPs).

The next focus, Rolle said, is completing the infrastructure to allow interoperability between the PSPs and commercial banks.

“That is a process that we are actively engaged in. The most important part of that integration is having a Sand Dollar network connected through the automated clearing house of the banking system. We’re doing more development to complete that process, which means that the holder of a Sand Dollar wallet or mobile payment account that is interoperable with the Sand Dollar platform, they’ll be able to send and receive money against their bank account through the infrastructure,” he said.

“That’s a very important development for us and it is timed along with other upgrades that are happening to the automated clearing house and the payments system. We’ve completed the testing for the ability to send funds from the network into the deposit account. We are working over the remainder of this year to complete the ability of the system to receive funds from the banks, so we’re doing the test with one of the commercial banks on one ability to send funds out of those deposit accounts to a Sand Dollar wallet, or to a mobile payment wallet and once we’ve completed that testing, that system will be available within the Sand Dollar infrastructure.”

In order to encourage the use of digital payments, the government this summer launched its DigiPay platform, which allows residents to pay for government services with the new digital Sand Dollar.

Rolle said the main message to Bahamians is the ease with which they can use the CBDC.

“One of the things that we want to stress to individuals – it’s a payment system that is powered by the Sand Dollar, irrespective of who you choose to provide the mobile wallet – but we are also stressing that if you have a mobile wallet you should be able to receive monies from anyone else who has a mobile wallet, irrespective of the brand if they are part of the network,” he said.

“That’s an important message that we are going to be promoting, that leaves the space necessary in the system for financial institutions to distinguish themselves and compete on the other aspect of the services that they provide.”

While some PSPs have reported in excess of 20,000 Sand Dollar accounts, others have reported as much as 50,000 and 60,000.

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source https://thenassauguardian.com/sand-dollar-usage-low-central-bank-looks-to-ramp-up-adoption/