By Robert A. Emmanuel
The Eastern Caribbean Central Bank (ECCB) said that one of the plans for its digital currency, DCash, would be for customers to be able to make transactions using the e-currency internationally.
DCash was launched in 2021 as a real-time payment option within the Eastern Caribbean Currency Union (ECCU), offering a safer, faster and cheaper method of making payments, and sending and receiving funds to and from other DCash users and merchants.
ECCB Governor Timothy NJ Antoine said in the post-pilot phase international payments will be on the cards.
The Governor noted that “in the next phase of DCash, we do have the possibility of making it more available to the diaspora,” he said, adding that persons living outside the Caribbean can use DCash “but they have to use it in EC dollars…you cannot use US dollars”.
“Our focus initially was on the domestic side, getting the currency up and running, get people involved, see how it works in [the Caribbean] but we have been getting requests to have a more direct way for the diaspora to use the DCash,” he explained.
Meanwhile, Governor Antoine acknowledged that DCash has suffered from a lack of marketing, which the bank is hoping to improve over the next 12 months.
The ECCB Governor indicated that a marketing agent has been contracted to assist in better promoting the digital currency throughout the eight member territories.
“We have contracted with a marketing partner to lead on the marketing side, because we have to be honest, we did not do a lot of marketing initially and, in hindsight, we should have done so,” he said.
Antigua and Barbuda, Grenada, St Kitts and Nevis, and St Lucia were the first in the currency union to test out the programme, with the Eastern Caribbean Amalgamated Bank (ECAB) and the Caribbean Union Bank (CUB) being the banks listed online as participating in the programme for Antigua and Barbuda. The St John’s Co-operative Credit Union was the only non-banking financial institution.
According to the Deputy Governor of the ECCB Dr Velda Henry, Antigua and Barbuda, St Vincent and Grenadines, and Grenada were the member territories that saw an increase in transactions through the DCash portal.
She noted that response to the DCash programme from the currency union has been a “mixed bag” so far despite a keen interest in the initiative.
She added that some of the reasons for this “uptick” included the growing interest for less physical cash.
“In some of the countries, they may have less ATMs per population, another is in terms of the financial sophistication of the populace wanting to use less cash and more digital currencies…there was a survey done and where you have persons wanting to less cash for maybe safety reasons, and those are the areas where you have some of the greater uptick,” the Deputy Governor explained.
Asked whether further banking institutions in the region have signed onto the DCash initiative, Governor Antoine noted “not all banks have joined fully” but explained that the takeover process by local banks of Canadian banking operations and its customers might have caused a delay.
“There are some banks who asked us for some time while they dealt with the transition associated with acquisition of Canadian banking operations—RBC or Scotia in the case of Republic Bank—so some of these banks will be coming onboard this year,” he said.
