Bank of Jamaica issues its first digital currencies

The Bank of Jamaica, BOJ, through its CBDC division officially announced the demonstration of the minting process of the digital currency, within the framework of a financial ceremony, where the Minister of Finance of Jamaica, Nigel Clarke, the governor of the BOJ, Richard Byles, and a group of top BOJ executives, as well as a management team from Irish technology firm eCurrency Mint.

Jamaica is making strong progress with a digital version of the Jamaican dollar, minting the nation’s first batch of CBDCs. According to the announcement: the Bank plans to issue a total of 230 million JMD, equivalent to 1.47 million dollars, in the form of CBDC for those institutions that accept deposits and authorized payment service providers as part of a digital currency pilot program ending in December.

Finance Minister Nigel Clarke noted that the country’s legislative representatives are “working on a legislative amendment to provide a legal basis for Jamaica’s CBDC by the end of 2021“, further acknowledging the speed with which the project has been developed. of digital currency in the country.

For his part, Richard Byles, BOJ governor, explained that CBDC’s next step will be to “guarantee widespread access and acceptance by bringing CBDC to users“, for which they plan to apply strategies that allow it to obtain different benefits between which highlight easier access means for efficient and secure payments.

All this process of digitizing the currency in the country will allow the BOJ and the other institutions responsible for accepting deposits an opportunity “to improve the processes and costs of cash management.”

The development schedule of the project on the creation and implementation of digital currency in the country is progressing adequately. The CBDC has the responsibility to “complete the Jamaican banknotes, which allows financial institutions to issue the currency to individual and commercial account holders with each digital token linked to the JMD in a 1: 1 ratio.”

M. Rodríguez

Source: es.cointelegraph.com