00:11As the primary regulator and supervisor of Trinidad and Tobago's financial sector,
00:17the central bank is seeking to ensure wider coverage of the fiscal landscape.
00:22New players are emerging on the payments landscape including our e-money issuers
00:28that we are registering right now.
00:30Of course, the Governor mentioned virtual assets service providers and other fintech entities
00:37utilizing new technologies, inter-alien, cloud computing, application programming interface,
00:46APIs, I'll say APIs from now on, QR codes, we know what that is, blockchain technology,
00:54distributed ledger technology, DLT, tokenization, AI.
01:00To this end, the central bank has drafted a Payment Services and Systems Bill and accompanying regulations.
01:07Once enacted, the legislation will support broader national objectives including expanding digital payments,
01:17enabling government e-services and advancing initiatives such as digital ID and faster electronic transactions.
01:27It aligns with the country's wider digital transformation and fintech agenda.
01:34Once the law comes into effect, service providers will be required to register and report to the central bank.
01:42If you are providing any of these activities, one or more of these activities, you should register as a PSP.
01:50The provision of transaction accounts, the provision of e-money accounts, the issuance of e-money,
01:58e-money meaning electronic money, you have a wallet, right, and you are loading that wallet
02:06and persons are able to purchase through that wallet.
02:12The law will also allow for greater level of transparency with customers, which is expected to redound to a safer
02:20fiscal climate.
02:22Notwithstanding our confidentiality provisions in the law, because we have to keep things confidential,
02:27we can publish when we have hit an institution with an admin fine.
02:32When there's a criminal prosecution or sanction on that institution, and when we are going to suspend that institution, you
02:39will know.
02:41So there's going to be information to inform your choices out there.
02:46Currently, we don't do that in our regulatory framework.
02:50We don't say who we're taking action against all the time, and there are reasons for that, financial stability and
02:55so.
02:56But in this case, we are going to allow some disclosures and publications for your benefit as a user.
03:02And apart from that, we're going to have public registers of agents so you can check if this is a
03:08properly registered agent.
03:10The next round of consultations will be held in Tobago on May 26.
03:15However, stakeholders are encouraged to provide feedback via Central Bank's website under the FinTech and Payments tab.
03:23I am Renessa Cutting with tonight's Inside Business.
Comments