The country is well on its way to implementing its own digital currency, according to Central Bank Governor John Rolle at yesterday’s quarterly media address. 

The Governor said that the Central Bank expects that at some point over the course of the year to begin the pilot. 

It has been expressed in the past that Exuma would be the ideal sized business community for such an experiment. 

Before all of this is done, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) also suggested in its recent mission that the country update its current digital system in preparation for such a move.

Mr. Rolle said, “what you should take from the IMF’s commentary as well is that they are pointing out a lot of the technology and related issues that are coming into play in any event in modern, digital financial systems.”

He added, “one of those would be the technology risks, and those risks exists whether as a Central Bank or as an individual financial entity. All of those risks exist today because we clear checks electronically, we clear all of our large payments electronically. So, we have a real-time payment system and we have a retail payment system.  

 “In all of those cases, we have to manage the risk and in those risks, are escalating in terms of the kinds of threats. So, we do know that our posture around those have to be very proactive,” said Mr. Rolle.

The Central Bank’s initial expectation was to introduce the pilot to the family island in less than three years. 

This follows its announcement last year that it was looking for a qualified company to produce the technology housing the currency.

Governor Rolle adds that the digital currency also brings  to the forefront a lot of concerns surrounding the abuse of the financial services sector like money laundering and the financing of terrorism. 

He said, “from our point of view, we know that having the identity infrastructure is super critical, and that is very important.

“Having the right identity infrastructure, in our view will also help the average individuals establish relationships easier with financial institutions because  we do not intend that a central bank digital currency is going to be the alternative to the bank. It should complement what your bank provides and make it easier for you to obtain more of those transactional type services from the bank,” he added. 

The CENTRAL BANK announced that it was eyeing the creation of a digital currency in January of last year. 

The country has since hosted a number of blockchain conferences in an effort to network with industry professionals and educate the masses.