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The Bahamas Sand Dollar central bank digital currency (CBDC) became available to all residents of The Bahamas on October 20. This makes The Bahamas the first country in the world to officially roll out a CBDC. Residents of The Bahamas can use the blockchain-based digital currency at any merchant with a central bank approved e-Wallet on their mobile device and transaction fees are negligible. The central bank has authorized six financial institutions for the project: Omni Financial, Kanoo, SunCash, Cash N Go, Mobile Assist, and Money Maxx. https://twitter.com/CentralbankBS1/status/1318658064074084352

The Central Bank of The Bahamas  (CBOB) published a Sand Dollar update in late May. During April and May 2023 they continued with more accelerated outreach, and technical developments to extend proprietary wallet access to the Bahamas Automated Clearing House (ACH) via the Sand Dollar infrastructure were completed. Meanwhile, the first iteration of Wallet 2.0, which will permit user self-activation, progressed to beta testing, with a general release targeted for the middle of the summer of 2023.

In a recent speech, Central Bank of the Bahamas (CBB) Governor John Rolle described four central bank digital currency (CBDC) factors that the Bahamas' experience suggests are particularly important - and that remain important to its own efforts to encourage CBDC adoption. Those factors are: building a network of merchants that accept and encourage CBDC use; achieving interoperability with the traditional banking system; enlisting participation from the traditional banking sector and credit unions; and the importance of "user education" and "inspiring user confidence".

Last month, John Rolle, the Governor of the Central Bank of Bahamas, shared an update on the rollout of the Bahamas' central bank digital currency (CBDC), known as the sand dollar, which went live in October last year.

According to this interview with John Rolle, the Governor of the Central Bank of the Bahama, "there are several other countries in the Caribbean [besides the Bahamas and the ECCB] that are going the route of CBDCs."

The "gradual national release of Central Bank of the Bahamas (CBOB) Sand Dollar central bank digital currency (CBDC) will begin on October 20, 2020. In the first phase, authorised financial institutions (AFIs) will ready their systems with know-your-customer (KYC) and other compliance checks across low-value, personal and enterprise wallets. The CBOB said it has subjected the Sand Dollar to a "rigorous cybersecurity assessment" to overcome public fears of paying with a digital currency. Regulations surrounding the Sand Dollar will be "crystalized" in the public space over the month of October. Sand Dollar's second phase, slated for early- through mid-2021, will focus on preparing essential infrastructure services in the government and private sectors, such as utility companies, for the CBDC. https://www.centralbankbahamas.com/news/public-notices/the-sand-dollar-is-on-schedule-for-gradual-national-release-to-the-bahamas-in-mid-october-2020

At least some of the millions of dollars in FTX customer funds mysteriously moved off the exchange during the week of November 7, 2022 were moved at the direction of regulators in the Bahamas. That assertion was made in a new filing by the company, and confirmed later by the Securities Commission of the Bahamas.

"There's a turf war going on between the FTX Digital Markets (FTX DM) liquidation in the Bahamas and the FTX Trading Ltd bankruptcy proceedings in the U.S. We wrote about it earlier, along with some of the fishy stuff going on in the Bahamas.  "

In the Hurricane Dorian aftermath, the Central Bank of the Bahamas Project Sand Dollar demonstrated one major benefit: rapid payments system restoration after a disaster. On Abaco and to a lesser extent Grand Bahama, local banking services closed as the branches and ATMs were destroyed or rendered nonfunctional. Restoring these physical assets required weeks to months, and in some cases are not yet in place. Mobile phone coverage, by contrast, was generally restored with a few days after Dorian. Sand Dollar's mobile phone functionality will mean that the financial recovery aspects of a hurricane can progress more quickly and more safely than would otherwise be the case.

The Central Bank of the Bahamas (CBOB) published its monthly SandDollar update. At end-June there were $1,093,373 of SandDollars in circulation (about 0.20% of total currency in circulation). The report also runs through the CBOB's extensive SandDollar outreach activities. Also, technical upgrades that allow top-ups to any SandDollar-enabled mobile application from domestic bank accounts were completed.

The Central Bank of the Bahamas (CBOB) published a paper that attempts to assess the introduction of central bank digital currency (CBDC) in the Bahamas. It uses a theoretical model that assumes that CBDC will lead to a decrease in the number of unbanked. As these individuals acquire access to financial institutions, the fraction of hand-to-mouth agents in the economy falls. If the number of unbanked individuals is cut in half, the economic benefits include: a reduction in the volatility of all shocks; monetary policy is more effective at controlling inflation and contributes less to the volatility of the overall economy; fiscal policy becomes more Ricardian, mitigating the size of fiscal shocks.

The Central Bank of the Bahamas (CBOB) published an update on the uptake of its Sand Dollar central bank digital currency (CBDC). At present, only about 100,000 Sand Dollar wallets have been downloaded usage remains low when compared to the overall size of the domestic payments system. In order to bump up usage, a new version of the wallet will be introduced that will allow digital payment providers to offer fee-based merchant services from within the core Sand Dollar platform. Financial institutions will be able to customize the appearance of the app to display their individual brand identities, including logos and branding color preferences. Also the CBOB will ramp up promotional activities at civic and cultural events, and it has has committed to a giveaway of $1 million in Sand Dollars to early adopters through 2024.

The Bahamas CBDC pilot is scheduled to be introduced in the remote Exuma district in 2020. The central bank is currently finalising the contractual onboarding of its chosen technology solutions provider, NZIA. Be cause the CBDC aims to complement and not replace existing banking services, the currency will not be interest-bearing. However, users may be able to invest in government securities via the CBDC wallet.

This is a nice summary of the Eastern Caribbean Central Bank (DCash) and Central Bank of the Bahamas (Sand Dollar) central bank digital currency (CBDC) pilots.

According to Bloomberg, the Central Bank of the Bahamas will roll out its Sand Dollar digital currency nationwide in October, after piloting the islands of Exuma and Abaco since December. The central bank will mint more Sand Dollars as demanded, at the same time removing physical currency out of circulation to prevent inflating the monetary supply. Once the system is up and running, holders will be able to use their mobile phones to make person-to-person or business transactions -- even when they're offline.

"Since starting the world's first central bank digital currency in late 2020, the Bahamas now has 300,000-plus "sand dollars" in circulation, and seven mobile payment providers began using the e-money earlier this year."

"The Securities Commission of The Bahamas on Wednesday released a statement justifying its move to cease the customer assets of the local FTX entity, FTX Digital Markets Ltd (FDM). It came after several questions were raised against the action of the Bahamian regulator." https://www.scb.gov.bs/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/SCB-Issues-Statement-on-Transfer-Motion.pdf

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) said that the Bahamas' Sand Dollar central bank digital currency (CBDC) needs better reach and more security to achieve its aims. The IMF noted the Sand Dollar represents only 0.1% of currency in circulation. The country's central bank "should continue strengthening internal capacity - including on cybersecurity and the resilience of systems associated with the Sand Dollar," adding that there are currently "limited avenues to use the Sand Dollar."

The Central Bank of The Bahamas (CBOB) has now completed its integration of the Sand Dollar with the Bahamas Automated Clearing House (BACH) system, opening the door for Sand Dollar to now be transferred from a digital wallet to any deposit account at a local commercial bank. Sand Dollar users simply pair their mobile wallets to a deposit account and carry out transfers.

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