The Eastern Caribbean Central Bank (ECCB) has inked a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with Barbados-based fintech company Bitt to conduct a blockchain pilot in the ECCB member countries.

The ECCB and Bitt will together develop, deploy and test technology with the focus on Know Your Customer Anti-Money Laundering and Combating the Financing of Terrorism (KYC/AML/CFT) data management, compliance and transaction monitoring system. The objective to improve the risk profile of the Eastern Caribbean Currency Union (ECCU) and mitigate against the trend of de-risking by the region's correspondent banking partners.

The pilot will also focus on developing a secure, resilient digital payment and settlement platform with embedded regional and global compliance. The project partners will work towards the issuance of a digital EC currency which will operate alongside physical EC currency.

"This fintech pilot is part of the Bank's Strategic Plan 2017-2021. The aim of the pilot is to ascertain the suitability of blockchain technology to help boost economic growth and competitiveness in the region consistent with the ECCB's monetary and financial stability objectives,” Governor of the ECCB, Timothy N. J. Antoine said.

According to the official release, the collaboration is the culmination of a three-day workshop which involved teams from the ECCB and Bitt. As part of the workshop, commercial banks in the ECCU were invited to a special session on the pilot and their feedback marked the first in a series of steps to define the functional and non-functional requirements for the pilot project.

"We are proud to collaborate with the ECCB in the development of this pilot study to explore technological solutions to some of the all too real problems affecting the region, its institutions and most importantly its people,” CEO of Bitt Inc., Rawdon Adams, said.

The pilot will begin later this year and will be conducted under the supervision of the ECCB, and in controlled environments.