07 December, Basseterre, St Kitts and Nevis – The Eastern Caribbean Central Bank (ECCB) is pleased to be rolling out its DCash pilot to two additional member countries today, Tuesday, 7 December 2021 at 2:00 p.m. during a joint launch in the Commonwealth of Dominica and Montserrat.
In March 2021, DCash – the digital version of the EC dollar – was launched in four of the eight-member ECCU countries, namely Antigua and Barbuda, Grenada, St. Christopher (St. Kitts) and Nevis, and Saint Lucia, then in August in St. Vincent and the Grenadines. After today’s launch, the remaining member country where DCash will be launched is Anguilla.
“The Eastern Caribbean Central Bank truly believes that the payment system should work for all, except for illicit actors,” Governor of the Eastern Caribbean Central Bank, Mr. Timothy N.J. Antoine said, addressing the justification for creating the DCash Central Bank Digital Currency. “That means it must work for small states and small businesses,” the ECCB Governor added while noting that “payments are too slow and too expensive.”
The free DCash app on the Apple App Store and Google Play Store enables users to send and receive money from their family members, friends or customers who live in the same country or in any other Eastern Caribbean country where DCash has been launched. DCash transactions are processed in real-time, with no transfer fees during the pilot project.
DCash, which can be used with or without a bank account, is aimed at achieving three policy goals: payments system efficiency, financial inclusion of the unbanked and underbanked populations, and increased resilience and competitiveness in the ECCU.
“All of these goals are aimed at boosting economic growth, but ultimately at propelling our agenda of socio-economic transformation for the shared prosperity of the people of our Currency Union. That is always fundamentally what is at stake here – shared prosperity for the people we serve – and we believe that to do that, we have to transform the region, and DCash is an important instrument in what is really the bigger conversation about the buildout of a digital economy for our Currency Union,” the Governor of the ECCB said.
“Our single largest asset as a Central Bank is trust, and therefore we believe we have an obligation to leverage that trust to help build out the digital economy – and we locate DCash as an important advance in the ultimate digitalisation of our economy and society,” Governor Antoine also said.
DBS Radio in the Commonwealth of Dominica and ZJB Radio in Montserrat will be providing live radio coverage of today’s launch from 2:00pm.
To learn more about the ECCB’s DCash pilot project, log on to www.dcashec.com and its Facebook page @DCashECCU.