BOJ to Roll Out Digital Currency in September

• Bank of Jamaica (BOJ) has reported that the pilot for the local Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC), which commenced in June, remains on schedule. This includes the minting of Jamaica’s first batch of CBDC on August 9, totaling $230Mn, which will be issued to deposit-taking institutions and authorized payment service providers.
• Deputy Governor, Natalie Haynes, has indicated that one financial institution, National Commercial Bank (NCB), has been engaged as the initial wallet (account) provider under the pilot, which ends in December. She told journalists that CBDC will be issued to NCB in September at which time the bank is expected to initiate its rollout to customers.
• NCB is first targeting “friends and family”, which would be staff and their families, after which, it would be rolled out to other NCB account holders, before moving to other non-NCB account holders.
• Both Governor, Richard Byles, and Ms. Haynes have noted that there has been positive feedback so far to the CBDC’s introduction. Mr. Byles said there was some degree of skepticism up to a year ago, but stakeholders were now more positively oriented to the CBDC implementation. Ms. Haynes said that further details of the CBDC customer take-up would be forthcoming in October.

Source: (JIS News)