Central Bank of Barbados Deputy Governor (Ag.) Talks FinTech

Acting Deputy Governor of the Central Bank of Barbados, Michelle Doyle-Lowe, recently sat down with ICT Pulse, a regional podcast, for an interview about the emergence of FinTech in Barbados.

During the discussion, Doyle-Lowe explained the Central Bank’s interest in FinTech,

and what it sees as its role in the area:

“We recognise that financial solutions, FinTech, the evolution of payments will involve changes in the way we do business, the way consumers want to be able to access, 24/7, payment services and ultimately to have greater convenience, efficiency, and lower costs built around their financial transactions. So as such, we, as regulator, want to better understand these types of initiatives… so that we know that we’re proceeding in a safe manner to facilitate and innovate within the financial space.”

Doyle-Lowe also spoke about the regulatory sandbox for FinTech companies that the Central Bank has set up in collaboration with Barbados’ other financial regulator, the Financial Services Commission:

“The regulatory sandbox is really a mechanism for us to respond to the change that we’re seeing in the market in a dynamic way, where we set up a space to observe companies that are offering new financial solutions; to observe and test, so that there is some level of reporting coming to us as regulator; and where we learn from the process because we can better understand the operational issues, any risk exposures, how they are embedding the AML (anti-money laundering) requirements that we apply to other licensed financial institutions. And at the same time, it allows the entity to learn what is required from the regulator.”

Listen to the full podcast here.