How Tech is Transforming the Caribbean Payments Landscape

Sponsored Content by Dalton Fowles

Cash is increasingly giving way to new payment methods around the world. The Caribbean is no exception to this trend, with a recent survey by Mastercard finding rising adoption of digital payments in the region, primarily credit and debit cards. The growth of e-commerce and the increasing number of people who have bank accounts are among the factors spurring this shift in the payments landscape.

Digital (or electronic) payments are faster, more convenient, and more secure than cash transactions. By enabling small and medium-sized businesses to receive payments for their products quickly and safely, digital payments foster economic growth and financial inclusion in the region.

Despite these major advantages, digital payments adoption faces a challenging landscape in the Caribbean. Many small businesses continue to struggle with accessing credit, digitising, and making and receiving payments. These roadblocks limit consumer choice, deprive businesses of sales and efficiency gains, and weigh on economic growth.

The embrace of touch-free payments is a key step forward in the digitalisation journey. Mastercard’s Contactless checkout solution allows customers to make payments simply by holding their card or device near a point-of-sale terminal. It’s not only a great way to streamline the customer journey everywhere from gas stations to fast-food restaurants, but also safer than cash, since each purchase is uniquely encrypted and the user’s card or mobile device never leaves their hand.

In the e-commerce realm, Click to Pay stores multiple cards in one secure profile so shoppers can check out without sharing their payment details each time. Our products also make life easier for merchants. Tap on Phone, for example, is a turnkey solution that allows businesses to use a smartphone to accept payments from any contactless card or mobile wallet.

Our customer-facing technology is building trust and helping reshape the payments landscape in the Caribbean. Research by Mastercard shows that 80% of respondents in Latin America and the Caribbean have used a card product, while almost nine out of 10 financial product owners use their mobile phones to make transactions.

Mastercard’s approach is multi-faceted, aiming to support the region’s digital ambitions wherever transactions occur – including the complex, hidden systems that keep those transactions fast and safe.

A study by the Bank of International Settlements found that a 1 percentage point increase in the use of digital payments is associated with a 0.1 percentage point boost in per capita GDP growth over a two-year period. Despite this, digital adoption continues to face hurdles in the Caribbean, where informal employment is widespread, a high percentage of the population remains unbanked, and most businesses still use hard currency.

The journey to financial inclusion will require more people to have access to financial services as well as the technologies to make paying for things easier and more secure. Dethroning cash is a community effort that will unlock more wealth and opportunity in the region, one swipe at a time.

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