00:00Dr. Alvin Hilaire, the Governor of the Central Bank of Trinidad and Tobago, spoke about the
00:05number of e-money issuers operating locally during the Trinidad and Tobago Stock Exchanges
00:102024 Capital Market Conference, themed Charting New Horizons, Accelerating Growth with Diversification
00:18and Seizing Digital Opportunities.
00:20Now, so far, under our e-money issue order, you have five companies that have been registered.
00:27One has relinquished its registration, and you have five now, including Commercial Bank,
00:36which is NCash.
00:38So you have the e-money issue order that governs those entities that are not commercial banks
00:47or licensed under the Financial Institutions Act, and then you have the Financial Institutions
00:53Act, the banks and so that offer e-money.
00:58During the conference at the Hyatt Regency in Port of Spain, Dr. Hilaire also spoke about
01:03an e-payment platform that exists in India called the UPI.
01:07A video demonstrating how UPI works was shown.
01:11Now you can make your purchases by scanning a QR code at shops, restaurants, petrol pumps,
01:16etc. through UPI.
01:19How secure is it?
01:20Single-click two-factor authentication, which uses UPI PIN and mobile SIM to all UPI transactions.
01:28As secured and trustworthy as your bank transactions.
01:31Dr. Hilaire then made an announcement.
01:34So Trinidad and Tobago, our solution will be based on the UPI.
01:39The solution comes in the context of a wider agreement between the government of Trinidad
01:43and Tobago and India on many different things, but it involves a number of agencies.
01:48So the central bank working directly with the central bank of India, which is called
01:54the Reserve Bank.
01:56Financial institutions will participate and a pilot is planned for the first half of 2025
02:02and UPI can be a reality here by the end of that year.
02:07The central bank governor said with such a system, people can buy anything, including
02:12doubles, using their phones.
02:15And people may naturally be skeptical or unclear, well, will cash cease to exist?
02:20What happens if the system goes down?
02:23Is my money safe?
02:24Will the state have undue access to my private financial information?
02:28All of these things need to be addressed.
02:31The central bank governor said there must be proper collaboration and communication
02:35as he described the planned project as a team event for the entire nation.
02:40Jule Brown, TV6 News.
02:45For more UN videos visit www.un.org
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