The Bank of Jamaica Completes its First CBDC Pilot
The Bank of Jamaica (BoJ), the central bank of Jamaica, has just announced it has successfully completed its first pilot program of its central bank digital currency (CBDC).
After starting the first test of its central bank digital currency in March 2021, Jamaica’s central bank has announced it completed its pilot program, which has lasted eight months, last Friday.
As part of the pilot program, the country’s central bank minted 230 million Jamaican dollars worth of the CBDC and authorized payment service providers on August 9, 2021.
According to the BoJ, it plans to officially launch its CBDC in the first quarter of the year, and hopes to add two new wallet providers to the existing National Commercial Bank (NCB), one of the largest financial institutions in Jamaica.
The country’s central bank has reported that these providers have already been conducting virtual simulation testing and would be able to order CBDC from BoJ and then distribute them to their customers.
The BoJ is also interested in working on interoperability, meaning that it wants to make sure transactions between different wallet providers are possible.
