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According to National Commercial Bank (NCB) Jamaica, the sole commercial bank providing wallets for JAM-DEX, the use of the central bank digital currency (CBDC) has been low. NCB CEO Jamaica Bruce Bowen said this may be linked to the few usage options for the CBDC, along with the process. Merchant adoption has been slow, despite the Bank of Jamaica committing funds earlier in 2024 for a technology provider to upgrade 10,000 of the more modern point of sale (POS) machines to support JAM-DEX. Also, Bowen noted that usage of NCB's Lynk digital wallet has been strong, few users are converting their bank deposit balances to JAM-DEX. https://radiojamaicanewsonline.com/business/ncb-says-use-of-jam-dex-low

The Bank of Jamaica (BOJ) is reportedly working to upgrade user-facing payment infrastructure to ramp up acceptance of its JAM-DEX central bank digital currency (CBDC). That will include funding the upgrade 10,000 of the more modern point-of-sale (POS) machines to support the JAM-DEX QR codes. Once the upgrades are done, the BOJ will relaunch its JAM-DEX marketing campaign to hopefully jump-start the underwhelming reception so far. However, the POS upgrades will still leave over 40,000 older machines that are not upgradable. https://www.centralbanking.com/benchmarking/financial-stability/7960528/richard-byles-on-jamaicas-inflation-targeting-baptism-of-fire

The Bank of Jamaica (BoJ) announced that eCurrency Mint has been chosen as the technology provider to support the Bank of Jamaica in testing a retail central bank digital currency (CBDC) solution in the BoJ's Fintech Regulatory Sandbox for a pilot in May to end December 2021.

eCurrency has entered into a long-term partnership with Bank of Jamaica to provide technology services for the national rollout of its JAM-DEX CBDC.

"The Jamaica Stock Exchange (JSE) is soon to trial bitcoin and ether trades with help from Canadian fintech firm Blockstation. The two firms jointly announced Wednesday that they have entered into an agreement to enable live trading of digital assets including security tokens in a "regulated and secured" environment."

"The Central Bank of Jamaica and eCurrency delve into the topic of CBDCs, based on the pilot that currently tests a digital Jamaican Dollar"

The Bank of Jamaica (BOJ) has reportedly officially launched Jamaica's JAM-DEX central bank digital currency (CBDC)  through the Lynk app on July 25.  Lynk is currently the only transaction platform for Jamaicans to use their JAM-DEX. As part of the launch, the first 100,000 customers that signed up for JAM-DEX via the Lynk app were given an incentive bonus of $2,500 JAM-DEX in their wallets by the Government of Jamaica.

"Jamaica will roll out its digital currency across the country in the first quarter of this year as part of an effort to lower transaction costs and provide financial services to citizens who do not use banks, a central bank official told Reuters."

"Following its successful pilot program, Jamaica's central bank digital currency is set to become publicly available this summer, Central Bank of Jamaica Governor Richard Byles told Blockworks."

The Bank of Jamaica has been given the authority to issue CBDC with the Senate's passage of the Bank of Jamaica (Amendment) Act, 2022 at Gordon House on June 3, 2022.

The Bank of Jamaica (BOJ) is reportedly still on track for the roll-out of its JAM-DEX central bank digital currency (CBDC) during the first quarter of 2022. The remaining steps include the passage of amendments to the Bank of Jamaica Act to make CBDC legal tender and the BOJ the sole issuer, and increasing the number of deposit-taking institutions onboarding clients. Also, launch awaits an independent third-party quality assurance assessment of the system, the results of which will be made public.

"Bank of Jamaica (BOJ) is pleased to announce the successful use of its Central Bank Digital Currency (JAM-DEX), as a means of payment to facilitate a critical segment of Government payments - the Employment Generation (Christmas Work) Programme."

Governor of the Bank of Jamaica (BOJ) Richard Byles reportedly says the central bank is "determined" to make its Jam-Dex central bank digital currency (CBDC) work despite the slow take-up. The main reason is merchant adoption, with most of the larger merchants preferring that Jam-Dex payments go through a single point-of-sale machine, so BOJ is testing a solution that uses a dynamic quick response (QR) code. Also, only one bank is able to facilitate Jam-Dex transactions, although three more are expected to step up to the plate soon.

The Bank of Jamaica (BOJ) announced plans to begin a central bank digital currency (CBDC) pilot in the second or third quarter of 2021. Over the last couple months, the BOJ has undertaken the requisite preliminary work relating to assessments and protocols aimed at receiving government approval for a pilot to run for a couple of months and be finiahed by the end of the year. If the pilot is successful, the BOJ aims to issue the new CBDC to the public in early 2022. The BOJ highlighted the benefits of CBDC which include increased financial inclusion, and providing another means of efficient and secured payments. Also, for deposit-taking institutions, the BOJ claimed that CBDC represents an opportunity to improve cash management processes and costs.

The Bank of Jamaica seeks interested persons to propose a suitable name, tagline, logo and image for its new central bank digital currency (CBDC). "The logo and representative design should be distinctive, attractive, and adequately represent the CBDC as a safe and convenient digital alternative to cash."

The Bank of Jamaica is inviting interested central bank digital currency (CBDC) providers to develop and test potential CBDC solutions in its recently established Fintech Regulatory Sandbox. Households and businesses would be able to use the proposed CBDC to make payments and store value, as they do now with cash. However the Bank is assuring the public that it will continue to issue bank notes and coins. The CBDC would be issued to licensed deposit taking institutions on a wholesale basis just as now being done with physical currency, which makes it sound like possibly a synthetic CBDC.

The Bank of Jamaica (BOJ) minted Jamaica's first batch of central bank digital currency (CBDC). A total of J$230 million in CBDC will be issued to deposit-taking institutions and authorized payment service providers during the CBDC pilot exercise which ends in December. Minister of Finance and the Public Service, Nigel Clarke, said that legislative amendments to accompany CBDC will be in place before March 31, 2022, the end of the current fiscal year.

The Bank of Jamaica (BOJ) reportedly said that, although wallet providers can monitor personal information and transactions of its central bank digital currency (CBDC) users, this information cannot shared with the BOJ and any other authority without a court order. The BoJ will only capture general data for economic analysis. A total of $230 million CBDC has been minted as part of a pilot exercise which ends in December 2021. If the pilot is successful, full roll-out is expected in 2022.

The Bank of Jamaica's push to deepen the mobile money market forms part of the central bank's CBDC drive to reduce cash usage. Governor Byles reportedly appealed to banks and other deposit-taking institutions to encourage their merchant customers to set up CBDC wallets. In particular, he wants to see cash-intensive industries to set up digital wallets to pay pensioners, enable toll road payments, and facilitate remittance flows. The test phase of the Jamaica CBDC, to assess the smoothness of transactions and get a read on the potential market receptivity to a digital currency, is under way and should wrap up by year end, with a public roll-out scheduled soon after.

Richard Turrin alerted me to the Bank of Jamaica (BOJ) JAM-DEX frequently asked questions (FAQ), and provides a nice summary here. Interestingly, the BOJ is not imposing any holding or transaction limits on the use of the central bank digital currency (CBDC). Instead, it is relying on banks to use their own risk management assessment to determine limits. For now, the Lynk wallet limits cashing in to J$50,000 (about $325) daily from a bank account, and J$50,000 monthly from a debit/credit card. For cashing out, limit is J$100,000 daily for a bank account. For transferring to another Lynk user, the limit is J$100,000 daily.