Jamaica is planning to launch a central bank digital currency (CBDC) in 2022. The government views the accelerated transition to a digital society and economy as vital to economic recovery following the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Minister of Finance also believes that a CBDC can greatly improve financial inclusion by making financial services available to the Caribbean nation’s unbanked population. He also clarified that a CBDC issued and backed by the central bank of Jamaica (BoJ) is not a cryptocurrency.
The CBDC will be legal tender and interchangeable with the Jamaican dollar (JMD) in cash on a one-to-one basis.
Jamaica has been working on a CBDC project since early 2020. After an extensive procurement process, Bank of Jamaica (BOJ) has chosen eCurrency to support BOJ in testing the central bank digital currency (CBDC) solution in the Bank’s Fintech Regulatory Sandbox. The pilot with eCurrency will run from May to end December 2021.
To learn more about CBDCs, download our ebook Central Bank Digital Currencies for Beginners – A Quick Guide into CBDCs.
Every day we send out a free e-mail with the most important headlines of the last 24 hours.
Subscribe now