THE Bank of Jamaica (BOJ) has said that its digital currency, Jamaica Digital Exchange (Jam-Dex), is to be fully launched as soon as some key outputs and regulatory processes are finalised.

Speaking with the Jamaica Observer last week, Deputy Governor for Banking and Currency Operations and Financial Markets and Infrastructure Natalie Haynes, who also chairs the central bank’s committee for the implementation of a digital currency, said that following a successful pilot of the currency last year, the national roll-out which has commenced with the National Commercial Bank (NCB) through its Lynk digital wallet was now in full gear with plans for an official launch to follow.

She noted some legislative amendments to the BOJ Act which seek to institute the BOJ as the sole issuer of the currency and for it to be recognised as legal tender, as being among the matters to be first addressed before launching.

“We are now at a stage where it has already been signed off by the office of the parliamentary council and the next step is for it to be submitted to cabinet,” she told Sunday Finance.

“Other things we want to have in place before the launch is to have more wallet providers in place. Out of a possible ten or eleven financial institutions we would love to see, particularly, the other big banks such as Scotia coming on board. If we have the two big banks [NCB and Scotia] and maybe three more, I think that will present a good platform for launching. We also want to test the interoperability between wallet providers,” Haynes said.

As the digital currency market heats up, several banks and other financial service providers are now moving to develop digital wallets. This, as the Government pushes the central bank digital currency (CBDC) as part of its digital transformation of the economy and as the BOJ moves to reduce the cost it incurs for cash each year.

NCB, which has been leading the charge, remains the sole CBDC wallet provider and has to date onboarded approximately 300 small merchants inclusive of barbers, hairdressers, vendors, and cook shop operators.

Just recently, JMMB Bank announced plans to roll out a digital wallet as part of its payment solution by the end of the 2022/23 financial year. Scotiabank had also earlier indicated that it was pursuing discussions with the BOJ to participate at the opportune time.

With Minister of Finance Dr Nigel Clarke, in his budget debate presentation last week, indicating that some four more wallets were expected to be added by midyear, the BOJ deputy governor indicated that these would mainly include deposit-taking institutions, which she declined to name.

Haynes, however, called for other participants, especially merchants, to get involved with the digital currency.

“We need more merchants to come on board as it makes no sense to have a CBDC wallet and you can’t spend the money. NCB already has some small merchants onboarded but we want the larger merchants such as the supermarket chains, pharmacies and quick service restaurants to also come on board,” she stated.

Amid some criticisms by the general public of its official name and logo, Haynes said there will be no revision or change of the current product’s name. “We will be moving ahead and there will be no changes.”

Jam-Dex — which represents a digital form of central bank-issued currency — is also a fiat currency, which means it can be exchanged, dollar for dollar, with actual cash. By using this currency which can be traded digitally via phones and other smart devices, there is a belief that it could possibly erode some traditional bank transaction fees.

Minister Clarke, in touting other opportunities to come from utilising this alternate form of currency, said that it would particularly benefit the large unbanked population as it gives them access to the formal banking system through less restrictive know your customer (KYC) requirements.

The minister, in incentivising more citizens to get involved with the digital currency, during his presentation also said that the first 100,000 Jamaicans to establish CBDC accounts after April 1 will receive a $2500 deposit from the Government.