- All commercial banks must allow their customers access to the CBDC.
- The Sand Dollar accounts for less than 1% of the nation’s total currency in circulation.
The Bahamian government has established a two-year deadline to incorporate the “Sand Dollar,” the country’s central bank digital currency (CBDC), into the activities of commercial banks in an effort to increase its acceptance. All commercial banks must allow their customers access to the CBDC, and Governor John Rolle of the Central Bank of The Bahamas has announced preparations to implement the required laws.
The strategy of the central bank is to go from promoting to requiring the use of the Sand Dollar on all financial systems. To keep up with the evolving needs of the integration, commercial banks will need to make adjustments to their IT systems.
Tough Road Ahead
These changes are vital for the country’s mobile payment systems and for CBDCs to be used more widely. The change is necessary to update financial transactions and strengthen the foundation of the digital economy, but it is fraught with technological difficulties.
Statistics show that the Sand Dollar accounts for less than one percent of the nation’s total currency in circulation, showing a disappointing adoption rate. Transactions that topped up wallets fell sharply between August 2022 and August 2023, dropping from $49.8 million to $12 million. Due to this precipitous fall, the central bank is shifting from encouraging voluntary use to mandating the use of CBDC.
Furthermore, central banks throughout the world are increasingly trying to coerce the use of digital currencies, and the Bahamian government’s approach is reflective of this trend.
The adoption of CBDC has been slower than anticipated in other countries as well, not only the Bahamas. In May, a number of government employees who participated in China’s CBDC pilot program expressed their preference to exchange their digital e-CNY for physical currency, stating that they were concerned about government monitoring and limited usability.
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