Last updated on November 17th, 2022 at 12:55 pm
On December 7, 2021, the Eastern Caribbean Central Bank (ECCB) started the operation of its digital payments system in two additional regions, the British overseas territory of Montserrat and the Commonwealth of Dominica.
In March 2021, the ECCB in a partnership with DCash released its CBDC earlier in the year. During its initial launch, it was available in Antigua and Barbuda, Grenada, Saint Kitts (Saint Kitts) and Nevis, and Saint Lucy, before moving to the Grenadines and Saint Vincent months later.
According to Mr. Timothy Antoine, the Governor of the Eastern Caribbean Central Bank,
“The Eastern Caribbean Central Bank truly believes that the payment system should work for all, except for illicit actors. That means it must work for small states and small businesses.”
DCash works with the CBDC as a payment channel to allow its users to make payments in the Eastern Caribbean Monetary Union (ECCU).
Antoine is serious about ensuring that the CBDC works in the different regions in ECCU, only for those that are utilizing it for legal purposes.
He added,
“All of these goals are aimed at boosting economic growth, but ultimately at propelling our agenda of socio-economic transformation for the shared prosperity of the people of our Currency Union. That is always fundamentally what is at stake here – shared prosperity for the people we serve – and we believe that to do that, we have to transform the region, and DCash is an important instrument in what is really the bigger conversation about the buildout of a digital economy for our Currency Union.”
The Governor stated,
“Our single largest asset as a Central Bank is trust, and therefore we believe we have an obligation to leverage that trust to help build out the digital economy – and we locate DCash as an important advance in the ultimate digitalisation of our economy and society.”
