Daily Archives: Mar 23, 2017

By Kieron Murdoch The President and Chief Financial Officer (CFO) of the Barbados based e-payment firm, Bitt Inc, has warned that the Caribbean region is falling behind the globe in the use of e-money and in the use of cryptocurrencies. Oliver Gale said both forms of electronic payment are alternatives to hard cash and coin which are growing in popularity around the globe. Gale was speaking at the 15th Ministerial Strategic Information Communication Technology (ICT) Seminar which was part of the Caribbean Telecommunications Union’s (CTU’s) ICT Week & Symposium currently being held in Antigua. “We’re seeking regulatory change and legislative change to support financial payment service providers and financial technology providers and the whole class of financial institutions that is more or less lacking in the Caribbean which is why we are falling behind,” he said. Gale added that “what the region needs is more competition and players in the space” and that it also needed “legislation to accommodate these innovative business models”. Not long after his presentation during the seminar, he and the CTU representative Selby Wilson signed a three year memorandum of understanding (MOU) between the regional organisation and Bitt to establish a framework for collaboration and further co-operation. Gale told the seminar that there were many difficulties associated with the use of hard currency, which digital currency overcame. “Some of the problems with cash are the cost of printing which is massive. One note in my island of Barbados costs between 50 cents and BDS $1 to create. There’s a tremendous cost to creating the money itself,” he said. “There’s a well document problem of money laundering, trafficking and tax evasion that us inherent in a cash-driven economy,” he added Gale also explained the difference between e-money and cryptocurrencies explaining, “Bitt advocates for both. In the digital space we can facilitate cryptocurrency and e-money payments. E-money is money that is issued by a party. Cryptocurrencies don’t have an issuer because they are de-centralised. Nobody issues cryptocurrencies like bitcoins.”

 The country’s main opposition party said it has written to Governor General Sir Rodney Willimas petitioning him to convene a commission of inquiry into the Odebrecht Bribery Scandal

A counsellor at the local AIDS Secretariat said that its records have shown a reverse trend in the transmission of the HIV virus, as the rate of infection among females has increased.

The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of a global financial technology firm has made an argument for regional governments to explore the use of Blockchain software to create what he called “economic passports” for Caribbean citizens.

The head of the Prison Reformation Committee and local church leader has warned the authorities to be careful about the people they allow into prisons to minister to inmates.