the payments system in trinidad and tobago - Central Bank of ...

30THE PAYMENTS SYSTEMIN TRINIDAD AND TOBAGOPoint-of-Sale (POS) TerminalsA Point-of-Sale (POS) terminal is the front end for a computerisedsystem that processes credit and debit card transactions. They areconveniently located at the cashier stations of a large number ofmerchants.POS machines were introduced to Trinidad and Tobago in 1997. Asat the end of 2008 there were approximately 12,000 POS terminalsinstalled throughout the country. The use of these terminals has beenincreasing steadily although the volume and value of transactionsthrough them remain lower than those through ATMs. In 2008, thevolume of transactions through the POS terminals was over fivetimes that in 2000.Telephone and InternetTelephone and internet or online banking were first offered bycommercial banks in Trinidad and Tobago in 1993 and 2000respectively. They offer customers the convenience of monitoringtheir accounts and making payments wherever they have access tothese channels and whenever they choose to access the service.Although historical data on their usage is not available, the statisticsfor 2008 show that there were approximately 390,000 telephonebanking and 443,000 internet banking transactions.