Despite processing 750 000 transactions worth $1.3 billion within its first month, the BimPay platform is facing operational issues largely attributed to financial institutions, Governor of the Central Bank of Barbados Dr Kevin Greenidge has said, as the regulator moves to enforce stricter standards and protect customers from delays and errors.

Dr Greenidge reported a failure rate of 0.2 per cent since the platform went live on June 12, acknowledging ongoing problems including delayed salary payments, difficulties accessing tokens, inconsistent spending limits and transaction delays, despite strong uptake of the new instant payment system.

He told journalists: “In the last month, that 0.2 per cent failure represents salaries that did not reach a worker[‘s] account on pay day. It represents pensions that do not reach a pensioner on time, and that is what a failed payment is… Where institutional payments have been failing, we at the Central Bank have not simply noted it and wrote the institutions. We have required that institutions find the cause, fix it, and report to us on both accounts. And while the institution is doing that we require that they put monies in the accounts of that customer’s account and then after reconcile it.