BiMPay payday hiccup traced to account data errors, Central Bank says

Delays in salary payments affecting some workers were caused by incorrectly formatted account details submitted by employers, not faults in the new BiMPay system, the Central Bank of Barbados has said.

The clarification follows complaints from employees who did not receive their salaries on time after the platform’s rollout. BiMPay was officially launched last Friday as a national real-time payments network.

BiMPay allows customers of participating financial institutions to transfer money instantly between banks and credit unions and forms part of the country’s move towards a modernised digital payments system.

In a statement on Friday, the Central Bank said the affected payments were delayed because account details submitted for processing did not meet BiMPay’s validation requirements.

“The delays relate to account information submitted in a format that does not meet the validation requirements for processing through BiMPay,” it said.

It explained that under the previous automated clearing house arrangement, which operated through batch processing, some formatting issues could be corrected before payments were completed.

BiMPay, however, processes interbank payments in real time, so account information must be correctly formatted before payment files are submitted, as the system validates it immediately.

The Central Bank said it has been working with participating financial institutions throughout the implementation of BiMPay to address account formatting and payment file requirements, while banks and credit unions continue to assist corporate customers in meeting the new standards.

Employers submitting payroll and other electronic payment files were advised to contact their financial institutions to confirm account formatting, validation and submission requirements.

The Central Bank also sought to address another concern raised by some workers, noting that employees with existing direct deposit arrangements do not need to download or use the BiMPay e-wallet to receive their salaries.

While apologising for the inconvenience caused to affected workers, the Bank said efforts were continuing to ensure salary payments and other electronic transfers flow smoothly.

According to the Central Bank, since interbank transfers resumed on BiMPay last Saturday, the platform has processed approximately 126 000 transactions valued at $210m.

(BT)