Mobile wallet collab to benefit e-commerce across Caribbean countries

Users of several different mobile wallets in Barbados and other parts of the region could soon be able to transfer funds to each other and pay for items sold by regional countries online using a single Caribbean settlement network.

The single settlement network is being facilitated by Trinidad-based payment facilitation services firm WiPay Caribbean, through a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) dubbed the Treaty of Bridgetown.

The partnership, announced by Chief Executive Officer of WiPay Caribbean Aldwin Wayne, has come out of the just concluded 2022 Fintech Islands conference at the Hilton Resort which attracted scores of tech experts and investors.

Wayne described the development as “a huge opportunity for increasing not only cross-border transactions but e-commerce and business across the Caribbean territories”.

He explained that it will allow for the interoperability of mobile wallets from Trinidad and Tobago, Barbados, Jamaica, Curacao and Haiti. The Ghana-based fintech firm Zeepay, which was launched here at the start of the year, will be the mobile wallet from Barbados to join the network.

“The purpose of this MOU is to create a single network that will allow for movement of funds easily between Caribbean countries using regulated payment service providers or regulated wallets.

“The purpose of creating this settlement network is for ease of money transfer between the islands,” said Wayne, noting that users of the participating mobile wallets will also be able to shop online.

Giving an example of how the system would work, he added: “You could be right here in Barbados selling egg balls, for example, and you have a website . . . and I am in Trinidad and I want to buy these egg balls. If there is a Trinipay in Trinidad, I could just go to my wallet, go to the [website] and the money I loaded in Trinidad can now pay for my egg balls in Christ Church.

“So the value of creating this network beyond settlement and remittance is increasing the scale at which you can now do business in the Caribbean beyond your country. Everyone will now be regional.”

The single settlement service will operate on the Automated Clearing House (ACH) network.

Wayne noted that a steering committee is to be established and by the end of the year a management team for the network should be in place. Regulatory approvals will be required in each market.

WiPay, which has a presence in nine Caribbean countries, recently expanded into Ghana through a partnership that Wayne said was the opening of a gateway between the region and Africa.

He expressed concern about the slow adoption of mobile payment systems by Caribbean residents, saying he believed this was due to solutions being introduced that did not necessarily meet the demands.

“Adoption in this region with mobile payment apps and wallets has always been slow because the product that was being introduced to the market wasn’t built to fix a problem that exists in our region,” Wayne said.

“That problem of just cookie-cutting something that exists outside and just bringing it here is why adoption is slow.”

However, Wayne believes that introducing a single settlement platform on which the various mobile wallets could operate would help to solve that issue.

“That is our solution. As I kind of walk through the journey, the problem we are solving is for unbanked customers and even banked customers to get services that they are trying to get from the bank. We are giving it to you. If you want to get a debit card we are giving it to you for free, if you want to get a point-of-sale terminal you get one for free, but it is all within an app,” he said.

Curt Persaud, one of the principals behind Fintech Islands, welcomed the development, saying he was happy that the conference had resulted in partnerships being formed.

“I think we need to change that mindset where it is always about competition. It is also about what is in the best interest of us serving the customers and the end users. Eventually, if we have that mindset I think everyone wins,” said Persaud. (MM)