Finance Minister Dr Nigel Clarke on Tuesday tabled a Bill entitled ‘An Act to Amend the Bank of Jamaica Act’ which seeks to facilitate the national issuance of the central bank digital currency (CBDC), called Jam-Dex.

In a post made on social media website Twitter, Dr Clarke noted that the tabling of the Bill is in keeping with the timing which he laid out in his budget presentation.

In addition to facilitating Jam-Dex, the Bill will also empower the Bank of Jamaica (BOJ) as the sole authority to issue CBDC as legal tender.

The passage of amendment to the BOJ Act is among one of the final steps required before Jam-Dex can be fully launched to the public.

Speaking at a digital quarterly media briefing earlier this year, deputy governor with responsibility for banking, currency operations, and financial markets at the BOJ, Natalie Haynes, noted that some of the other areas which should be finalised before the full roll-out include: increasing the number of deposit-taking institutions (DTIs) onboarding clients, ramping up the communication campaign and the BOJ completing its independent third-party quality assurance assessment of the system.

Jam-Dex is a digital form of central bank-issued currency and is a fiat currency, which means it can be exchanged, dollar for dollar, with actual cash.

A pilot CBDC solution was tested in BOJ’s Fintech Regulatory Sandbox successfully last year and the central bank has since moved to mint its CBDC. National Commercial Bank (NCB) is also offering Jam-Dex through its digital wallet, Lynk.

The local digital currency will not be a cost to consumers and will be a full complement to bank notes and coins issued by BOJ.

The BOJ has indicated that it intends to fully launch Jam-Dex sometime this year.