The Tribune

By YOURI KEMP

Tribune Business Reporter

ykemp@tribunemedia.net

Digital payments providers have already unveiled kiosks and other infrastructure in Abaco to aid the Bahamian digital currency’s roll-out.

Sean Smith, SunCash’s business development manager, told Tribune Business: “The kiosk is going to allow persons to go with their fiat, their physical cash, and they will be able to feed the cash into the kiosk and they will be able to get Sand Dollars.

“They can also get any Sun Cash services we have. So they can feed it into that kiosk. They can get Sand Dollars from that kiosk or any other SunCash services from that kiosk. For debit cards and credit cards we will have a mechanism on the kiosk that will allow people to swipe their debit or credit card, and that will act as actually funding the Sand Dollar or the Sun Cash from that same point.”

Charmaine Edgecombe, Commonwealth Bank’s operations manager, said the BISX-listed commercial institution is partnering with the Central Bank to help roll-out the Bahamian digital currency, known as Project Sand Dollar, to its customers.

Ms Edgecombe added that no timeframe has been set for adopting the Sand Dollar infrastructure, but in the “near future” it will make it available for all clients in Abaco.

There are currently two Commonwealth Bank automated teller machines (ATMs) on the island, one at the Maxwell’s Supermarket in Marsh Harbour where is also a fully operational Commonwealth Bank branch, while the second ATM is at the Leonard Thompson International Airport.

Simon Kim, managing director of NZIA Ltd, which was selected by the Central Bank as the Sand Dollar’s technology partner, said: “So the Sand Dollar is like money, just like the current modern day banking. You keep the money with the banks, and you use the banks to safeguard your money, and then you go to the banks to withdraw your money either through the ATM or over-the-counter.

“But all of those things can be discarded, meaning you can actually request for a withdrawal of the money using the Sand Dollar network. You can actually pull the money from the account to your wallet.”

Understanding that The Bahamas is “not fully digital yet”, Mr Kim said this meant “we need to convert some of the physical cash into the Sand Dollars. So if you are to send cash from Abaco to New Providence, using the physical cash is difficult.

“But you can go to any of the kiosks and slide in your paper money and convert it into the Sand Dollars and now you have the money in the digital wallet, so now you can send it to anywhere in The Bahamas.”

Explaining the importance of having a money transfer company on-island such as SunCash, Mr Kim said: “NZIA is the infrastructure company, meaning that we are not a service provider. Everything goes through the regulated and authorised financial institutions. SunCash is one of the authorized financial institutions under the Central Bank.

“They will still conduct all of those regulatory compliant processes, so you still need to be KYC (know your customer), but the Central Bank is adopting the risk-based, multi-tiered KYC process meaning that even though you just have a photo-ID and a phone number, you will still be able to access up to $500.

“Of course, if you go through the normal regular KYC you can access up to $5,000. So they are going to conduct all of the KYC and the screening of the people. So their presence in Abaco will allow people to get on board with the Sand Dollars, and easier and faster here in Abaco.”