TRANSACTION values on Jamaica’s central bank’s digital currency, Jam-Dex, have accelerated this year, reaching $51.7 million in the seven months to July as the Bank of Jamaica (BOJ) moves to widen merchant acceptance and bring more financial institutions onto the platform.

The BOJ-reported figure compares with $19.3 million transacted during all of 2025 and about $3 million in 2024, according to Deputy Governor Natalie Haynes, who said Thursday that Jam-Dex now has roughly 320,000 subscribers.

Separate BOJ base-money data show that central bank digital currency (CBDC) issue stood at $294.7 million at the end of July, up from $290.7 million a month earlier.

“We are hopeful because what we see is an increase in the value of transactions over the period,” Haynes told BOJ’s Quarterly Monetary Policy Report press conference.

The increase comes as BOJ seeks to address two of the main constraints on wider use of the digital currency: The limited number of wallet providers and the number of locations where consumers can spend Jam-Dex.

Only two wallet providers currently offer the currency, Haynes said, although more institutions are being prepared to enter the market.

One institution has already been issued digital currency and is conducting internal testing, with BOJ expecting it to begin rolling out wallets to customers in the first quarter of 2027. Another is expected to follow later in 2027.

BOJ is also working to expand Jam-Dex acceptance across Jamaica’s point-of-sale network.

Haynes said two banks are working with five institutions involved in point-of-sale infrastructure across the island. One bank is nearing completion of its work and is expected to begin accepting Jam-Dex at point-of-sale terminals in the first quarter of 2027.

Another bank is initially working on electronic point-of-sale, or ePOS, technology that would allow merchants to accept payments through mobile phones before moving to fixed terminals.

“By the first half of 2027, we expect roughly about maybe 40 per cent of the points of sale across the island should be able to accept Jam-Dex,” Haynes said.

The wider rollout would give consumers more places to use the digital currency, which BOJ introduced as an alternative to cash and as part of efforts to broaden access to formal financial services.

Governor Dr Brian Langrin, facing the press for the first time since taking office Wednesday, said the current system represents only an early stage in Jam-Dex’s development.

“This is not the end phase of Jam-Dex,” Langrin said. “Jam-Dex is going to serve Jamaicans in ways in which it’s an option. It’s a digital option.”

He said the currency could play a larger role in reaching Jamaicans outside the traditional banking system and in moving funds more quickly during emergencies.

That potential came under renewed focus after Hurricane Melissa, although BOJ officials said Jam-Dex was not specifically used to distribute Government grants following the disaster.

Haynes said wider use of the system for such payments would require both recipients and the merchants where they spend the money to have digital wallets.

Langrin said BOJ is discussing with Government how digital-payment infrastructure could eventually be used to distribute relief funds more efficiently following hurricanes and other disasters.

He said properly registered recipients could receive funds through the digital-payment system “in record time”.

The concept is not entirely new. Jam-Dex has previously been used for some Government-to-person payments, including wage payments under a public employment programme, while BOJ has also developed a framework for social and welfare transfers.

The disaster-relief application, however, would extend that use into emergency-response payments.

BOJ is also engaging with the World Bank on payment systems designed to strengthen disaster resilience across the Caribbean.

Langrin said the World Bank has offered technical assistance aimed at helping countries develop infrastructure through which money can be transferred quickly to vulnerable people following major disasters.

The need for more resilient payment options became apparent after Melissa, when damage to banking infrastructure in western Jamaica forced BOJ to approve temporary branch locations and co-location arrangements and adjust bank opening hours.

The central bank also allowed simplified due-diligence procedures for customers who had lost identification and other documents in the hurricane.

A BOJ official said those measures were taken in what remains a “cash-dominant ecosystem”, contrasting the immediate post-Melissa response with the digital infrastructure the central bank hopes to have available in future.

For now, increasing Jam-Dex usage will depend partly on broadening participation beyond the two wallet providers currently offering the currency and expanding the number of merchants able to accept it.

“We have been saying this time and time again, and we only have two now offering,” Haynes said.