TT Finance Centre's push for cashless society

Digitisation has been the talk of the town as governments, companies, businesses and individuals seek new ways to carry out transactions especially since the onset of the covid19 pandemic.

And while it is not something new, it has taken centre stage in the last year.

One such organisation that has been pushing this drive is the TT International Financial Centre (TTIFC) through its financial technology (fintech) integration to provide financial ease of doing business as well as attract local, regional and international investors.

Its chief executive officer Omar Sultan Khan said fintech has been on the table for almost two years, and it is a system geared towards making financial services faster, better and less costly for customers.

“We have been pushing this agenda for the last couple of years and we have played a critical role in submitting how fintech can play a role in the national recovery paper, the e-money issuance with the Central Bank, and reviewing other documents that have been circulating with regards to e-payments, e-policy and mobile payments.”

He added that TTIFC has been working to make TT a fintech resource hub, which means easier and quicker financial transactions for everyone.

“Fintech is the application of technology to finance, and we’ve seen it throughout our lives from the ATMs to the point-of-sale terminals. It is the inclusion of technology into offerings by financial services companies to improve the use of their services and its deliveries to consumers.

“It is important because it creates an ecosystem that nurtures the type of technological innovation necessary to make financial markets and systems more efficient and improve the overall customer experience.”

Is there a fintech ecosystem in TT?

Yes, according to Khan but it is not fully developed. He said there are upcoming fintechs and while those institutions are not fully developed gradual work with them, and collaborations have started to foster good results.

“We are familiar with the large indigenous banks but the local fintech ecosystem has a lot of room for collaboration. We are seeing the legislations be adjusted and implemented such as the e-money order.

“There is a lot of working being done in the background, but we are still in the infancy stage. A lot of awareness is still needed in the public sector and the private sector, citizens need to be made aware of what the solution are being offered, data security and cyber security and how to operate around it.”

Is TT ready for a fintech transition?

While there may be scepticism around online financial transactions because of hacking, identity theft, data and cyber security, Khan said it is not the complete removal of the use of cash from the system but having a cashless option.

A cashless option, he urged would always be beneficial to the consumer as it provides transparent and safe transactions in everyday purchases and usage and most importantly reduces the risk of crimes such as robberies.

“We have to build confidence in the system and a good service. The pandemic has shown that this system can work here. We have seen a lot more online shopping and payments in the private sector. And through the government and FinTech TT that is where we continue to push.”

Khan added that they have been working the public sector to digitalise payments with several ministers going online such as the ministry of works and transport and the ministry of finance.

He also noted the additional benefits of fintech are job creation and sustainability to sector through data analytics and data science. He said that this is important because there is a lot of data circulating that needed streamlining in order to make services more effective in both the public and private sectors.

“We have identified this area as a potential skill set that needs to be further developed. We have a lot of people with this talent and perhaps they work individually or consult for companies outside of TT. We sit on a lot of data in a lot of our organisations.

“What we are trying to do is upskill these people. Companies have created in-house positions and within the public sector there is a digital transformation push. We have asked that this be an area to consider because it will certainly improve services.”

Khan said the creation of their local association a few years ago has shown that there is need for this type of system in TT to push the private sector towards a cashless society.

“The focus for 2021 is looking at the public sector now. We have an entity in the association to deal with the private sector and we will still be involved. We want to see what can be done through the Ministry of Public Administration and Digital Transformation from a financial perspective.”

Khan said the focus is on local development at this time with assistance from the Division of Financial Inclusion of the Development Bank of Latin America (CAF) which seeks to identify technological solutions that contribute to mitigating the impact of covid19 on vulnerable populations and small and medium enterprises.

“Our work with CAF looked at identifying and assessing our low value payment system, looking at the gaps when compares to other systems in the region and then finding solutions to improve the system.”

With CAF, Khan said TTIFC continue to push fintech initiatives for financial inclusion, cashless transfers, micro-insurance, debt restructuring or digital transformation among other initiatives.