CONTACT Magazine (Vol.18 No.2 – September 2018)

This electronic financial transaction system allows users to operate in a cashless
environment by using an app on their mobile phone to access and manipulate
funds. From this single, central digital location, users can perform transactions that
would normally require cash, such as merchant purchases, bill payments, topping up
mobile phones, and even government business like paying for driver’s permits and
work visas.
Verification of transactions, to ensure that they are compliant, is undertaken
by ECH’s sister company Global Processing Centre, the only indigenous international
processing centre in the region.
Persaud says: “This technology has just begun to infiltrate the Caribbean. The
major driver is the millions of persons who are unbanked or underbanked, and limited
to a cash-only system. This digital model has proven to be a powerful catalyst for
economic growth in other developing markets.”
One of SugaPay’s unique features is that its digital mobile wallet offers
customers several physical touch points, including the use of an ATM card. Since
its launch in Trinidad and Tobago in 2017, SugaPay has worked initially with local
credit unions, which for the first time will be able to offer their members access to
a fully integrated payment ecosystem.
SugaPay already has a presence in Montserrat, with plans for Jamaica, Barbados,
Suriname and Guyana. “Although Trinidad and Tobago has one of the highest GDPs
in the Caribbean,” Persaud says, “it lags behind some of our sister islands in the
adoption of technology. So introducing new fintech and building demand for a
seismic shift of this nature has been challenging.”
WiPay
Launched in Trinidad and Tobago in 2017, WiPay allows users to convert cash to digital
currency, which can be used to make electronic payments online wherever WiPay is
accepted. People excluded from digital transactions because they did not have a credit
card, debit card or bank account, have been the most affected so far.With operations
expanding Grenada, Guyana, Haiti, Jamaica and St. Lucia, WiPay has worked with
several local and regional corporations and the Trinidad and Tobago government.
Payment platforms are integrated by combining the services of the regulated financial
institutions with WiPay’s proprietary technology. Point-of-sales terminals can now be
integrated with the most commonly used card payment terminals.
WiPay also provides distinctive wristbands to facilitate contactless payments.
In addition, it’s new “pay with a smile” concept allows users to combine biometrics
with a 4-digit PIN in order to make payments. As part of an initiative with the
judiciary in Trinidad and Tobago, CourtPay was launched in April 2018, to introduce
digital payments to the process of making and collecting maintenance payments,
with plans to add court fines and fees.
Aldwyn Wayne, WiPay’s CEO, says: “WiPay is expanding its services across the
Caribbean and to other developing countries. We want to provide financial inclusion
for people from all walks of life. We want to become the trusted digital financial
network connecting Caribbean people as well as the diaspora.”
Bitt
Bitt, a fintech company based in Barbados, is focused on financial inclusion in the
Caribbean, particularly for the unbanked and underbanked. By reducing the cost of
payments and transfers, including remittances, Bitt can help countries reduce their
reliance on the US dollar for trade, thus improving the ease of doing business in the
Caribbean, and safeguarding foreign reserves.
Dr. Christian Stone, co-founder,
CariCrypto Ltd
Jordan Millar, co-founder, CariCrypto
Ltd
Marc Persaud, co-founder, CariCrypto
Ltd and Manager, ECH Group
courtesy Caricrypto
courtesy jordan millar
courtesy Caricrypto
www.chamber.org.tt/contact-magazine 23
Trinidad and Tobago Chamber
of Industry and Commerce