Making it easier to do business
Government yesterday introduced two new bills intended to modernise the way financial transactions are done in this country by way of a new national payment system.
Word of this has come from Minister in the Ministry of Finance, Ryan Straughn. He made the comments while leading off the debate on the National Payment System Bill and Bills of Exchange (Amendment) Bill, as he noted that while Government intended to have the work which started on that new system back in 2019, completed last year, the COVID-19 pandemic put a spoke in that wheel. But, he said it is expected that it will take effect this year and improve the way business is done in this country and is expected to give greater choice to the business community by way of merchant services.
“We set about a process to be able to streamline all of the processes and procedures within the financial institutions, but equally Sir, to have representatives of all business classes along the way, to be able to ensure that we are capable of moving Barbados’ economy forward. And so we started looking at what each financial institution or player was offering at that time, Sir, and we set about a path, which has culminated now, in a situation, two years later, where all of the major financial institutions, including banks and credit unions, are now on a path to be able to upgrade their systems and be able to move to a situation where payments can happen in real time, starting during 2021,” the minister said.
Straughn added, “But we started on this journey as I said in January 2019, because we knew as a government, that it was important that we tackle a number of the long-standing issues as it relates to doing business in the country.”
In that vein, he said the Government has started the process of on-boarding a number of different processes being offered across Government to the citizens and using technology to help them deliver better services to the people. Straughn went on to say that the two pieces of legislation will change the landscape with respect to the way that business is conducted in the country. He explained that through the legislation, the Government is laying the platform to help persons run their businesses better and encourage businesses to do more foreign trade.
“...What is being contemplated with respect to this national payment system is much broader than what is currently existing in Barbados for the average business, but it is within certainly the right of any business or vendor to determine what business model they may wish to pursue. The reality is that we feel that in order to do business in a cost-effective way, we need to have as many transactions being run through our payment systems... This will provide a facility, an option that would allow businesses to do a lot more cross-border transactions and widen the scope with respect to their operations,” the minister added. (JRT)