The long-awaited upgrade and expansion of the real time payment system Automated Clearing House (ACH), will roll out in two months, says Minister in the Ministry of Finance Ryan Straughn.
Straughn said that Government was doing all it could to advance the island into the digital age and the introduction of this system was one of the key parts of the plan.
He made this disclosure on Monday during a press conference at State House, Government Hill, St Michael.
He said “In January 2019 I met with all of the financial institutions who participate in the payment system and they have all been able now to complete their testing with respect to the upgrade of the real time ACH . . . While they assured me that they did not want to introduce new technology during the Christmas season, they have agreed to be able to launch that in February 2023.
“Therefore I urge Barbadians and business people to be able to help us to adopt these technologies so that we are able to pay digitally [and] save time with respect to processing of payments right across the economy such that the cost of doing business can be reduced significantly in 2023. We believe that that very critical reform exercise would now democratise the entire payment system,” he said.
The ACH is part of a wider upgrade of the local payments system. It handles both cheques and direct payments and allows customers to carry out banking transactions in real time even outside regular business hours.
It also allows for financial institutions to use a digital representation of a cheque to clear it so the transfer would take place more quickly instead of the traditional seven or more wait days.
Straughn said that implementing this system would also complement Government’s five per cent growth plan as digital transformation often led to the ease of doing business.
“We are confident . . . that we will be in a position to be able to drive growth domestically by being able to improve the efficiency right across the system. Government is working hard itself to be able to digitise much of its processes by the middle of next year such that the regular humbugs with respect to paying Government should come to an end and therefore we will be able to see less lines, provided that people cooperate with respect to onboarding their financial institutions and being able to pay.
“I believe very strongly that if we do this that not only will your customer service improve, it means that your time queuing in a line whether it is to pay Government or the private sector, that we can now move the economy onto a different level and be able to do business far easier than we have been seeing before.”
The minister added that the ACH payment system was a more secure way of making business transactions.
At a news conference in January, Governor of the Central Bank of Barbados Cleviston Haynes said the system would be in place by the middle of this year. He noted that the first phase of the system was completed and only two of the island’s five commercial banks had signed on then as the others were experiencing difficulties making the transition.
Initially, in his contributions in Parliament on the Fair Credit Reporting Bill, 2021, Minister Straughn had stated that the ACH system would be launched early in 2022. (SZB)
