Bitt breaks new ground with digital currency transaction
Article by February 25, 2021
International financial technology firm Bitt has executed its first successful retail central bank digital currency (CBDC) consumer-to-merchant transaction using DCash, in partnership with the Eastern Caribbean Central Bank (ECCB).
DCash is the newly developed ECCB digital currency. The transaction was completed at Geo F. Huggins’ Foodland, in the island of Grenada on Friday, February 12, 2021, as part of the digital cash infrastructure project.
Commenting on this achievement, Governor of the ECCB Timothy Antoine said “this transaction is a major milestone in our mission to place DCash in the hands of the people of the Eastern Caribbean Currency Union (ECCU)”.
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The Eastern Caribbean Central Bank (ECCB) has given approval for a consortium of indigenous banks to purchase RBC’s assets throughout the Easter Caribbean. In a release Friday, the Caribbean Association of Banks (CAB) said ECCB Governor Timothy Antoine the approval. The sale includes operations in Antigua and Barbuda, Dominica, Grenada, Montserrat, St Lucia, St Kitts and Nevis, and St Vincent and the Grenadines. The assets will be sold to First National Bank in St Lucia; Antigua Commercial Bank; National Bank of Dominica; Bank of Montserrat; and Bank of Nevis. The value of the transaction was not given.
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The Ninety-Eighth Meeting of the Monetary Council of the Eastern Caribbean Central Bank (ECCB) was held on 12 February 2021, via videoconference, under the Chairmanship of Dr. the Honourable Timothy Harris, Prime Minister and Minister for Finance, Saint Christopher (St Kitts) and Nevis.
The meeting heard that the COVID-19 pandemic posed substantial economic and health related challenges to the Eastern Caribbean Currency Union (ECCU) in 2020.
The ECCU economy is estimated to have contracted by 15.0 percent compared to a projected pre-pandemic expansion of 3.2 percent. Tourism, the region’s dominant export, is estimated to have declined by 75.0 percent.