Former Governor of the Central Bank of Barbados Dr Delisle Worrell has backed its national digital payment platform, cautioning consumers that they face greater risk when carrying out transactions with ‘hard’ currency than with digital payments.

In the August edition of his Economic Letter, entitled Banks Do Not Use Currency to Make Payments, Dr Worrell argued that digital transactions should be the preferred means of payment.

He said: “The crucial difference between payments with currency and bank-based payments has to do with anonymity. Bank-based payments are preferred because of  convenience and low risk of loss and fraud, but they come with high information requirements.”