E-commerce transactions using DCash coming soon – ECCB

Consumers will soon be able to conduct e-commerce transactions using DCash, as the Eastern Caribbean Central Bank (ECCB) pushes ahead with the digital version of the Eastern Caribbean (EC) dollar which was launched two years ago.

This was announced by Governor of ECCB Timothy Antoine on Tuesday, May 30 as he gave an update on the status of DCash in response to a question from a journalist during a press conference at Frenches House in Kingstown.

Antoine said when DCash was launched in March 2021, the ECCB became the first currency union in the world to launch a digital currency.

“It’s interesting because when we did it, we were deemed to be…very innovative and it was not yet seen as mainstream,” he said.

Today, over 70 per cent of all central banks are involved in either the development of a digital currency, whether they are in the research stage or working on a pilot. These include Bank of England, banks in the United States such as the Federal Central Bank, Bank of Canada and others.

“…We had started with the idea of launching the pilot in four countries. While we were getting ready to launch in four, we got a request in the pandemic for other countries…to benefit…so we expanded the pilot from four to eight countries, so today, all eight countries have DCash.”

Antoine said that it was an incredible feat for ECCB to get to that point as early as it did, as it took a lot of effort especially since the product was launched in the middle of a pandemic. However, he conceded that they did not market DCash very well.

“We are now just starting to market DCash, so we have hired a marketing agent…the marketing machine to prepare the marketing collateral and the campaigns. We also hired local agents on the ground, so in St Vincent and Grenadines we have Ms Camille Crichton for example, who is working with us and with the partner to market.”

He added that as a result, there have been some increases in the numbers across the islands, but there’s a lot more work that is left to be done.

“One of the things for example that we are working on and we plan to roll out soon is the e-commerce option…which is important for small businesses to be able to offer the DCash as a…payment option, and also ultimately to integrate DCash with their core banking systems. That is not currently the case.”

He said right now, if someone wants DCash, that person must ask their bank or agent to put it into their wallet. However, once e-commerce is integrated with the core banking systems, that person can do it themselves using their phone.

“…But at this stage, we are seeing increases in the numbers and we believe as the marketing campaign takes root, we’re going to see more and more people.”