QUARTERLY

THE CORPORATE NEWSLETTER FOR TRINIDAD AND TOBAGO IFC

Issue 26 JUL-SEP 2020

CEO’S MESSAGE

Omar Sultan-Khan

The last quarter of Financial Year 2019-20 has ushered in expanded outreach by the Trinidad & Tobago International Financial Centre as part of its ongoing stakeholder engagement campaign aimed at encouraging FinTech adoption, along with the achievement of critical milestones in our effort to make T&T a ‘Cashless Society’.

We launched our webinar series – ’Making T&T a FinTech-enabled Financial Services Hub’ – with the topics: “FinTech Integration: Pillar for National Recovery”; “Human Capital Development for FinTech Industries”; and “Exploring the Potential Benefits of FinTech in T&T”. We will respond to the overwhelming uptake for this series by extending it into the new fiscal year. Similarly, we commenced our T&T IFC Fortnightly email newsletter, and a weekly radio programme which both provide real-time updates on our work, as well as feature monthly articles on FinTech development. It is our hope that as the driver for FinTech-integration, these initiatives will allay fears, enhance awareness, and encourage adoption of FinTech solutions.

2020 kicked off with the launch of the FinTech Association of T&T (FinTechTT) in February and despite the COVID-19 restrictions, the T&T IFC worked assiduously with the Interim Management Committee to develop an operationalisation plan; a sandbox and incubation hub proposal; a draft infrastructure audit survey; a collation of international best practices for FinTech; and a public outreach plan. All of this culminated with the official handover of FinTechTT to the private sector in September. While the T&T IFC will continue to provide support, it is now up to the FinTech stakeholders (both public and private) to build on the robust foundation laid and ensure FinTechTT truly becomes the voice of the sector.

Our other work in the quarter continued to focus on building on existing relationships and developing new ones. This allowed us to facilitate the compilation of private sector feedback on the Non-Bank, Non-Financial Institutions Guidelines developed by the Central Bank of Trinidad & Tobago (CBTT), and assist in the finalisation of the e-Money Policy, also created by the CBTT – this was adopted by Cabinet on August 4th and the Regulators have since launched a Regulatory Innovation Hub to accept applications for those wishing to act as ‘e-money issuers’.

To support FinTech development, we have partnered with Div Solutions to launch a Data Science Pilot Programme to build on the Data Analytics/Data Science Training programme we co-hosted with the UWI-Roytec and Incus Services Ltd. This is a continuation of our activities in enhancing our human capital to make financial services professionals future ready.

Altogether, this work and what is planned for 2020-21 is aligned to the Administration’s national development agenda that is clearly outlined in Vision 2030, the Post-Covid19 National Recovery Plan and the National 2020-2025 Work Plan. The Prime Minister has called upon us all to collaborate and strive to build a “new and more resilient economy”.

The National Budget 2021, presented by our line Minister – the Honourable Colm Imbert – demonstrates the Government’s commitment to implement its digitalisation policy with monetary and fiscal measures aimed at improving the ‘ease of doing business’, facilitating ‘digitisation’ and ‘digitalisation’, and the development of MSMEs and human capital, among other goals. In particular, the highlighting of e-money, e-commerce and mobile business bodes well for the FinTech sector and its expansion past payments systems into other financial services.

All of this is only possible due to the Board’s and our partners’ continued support, along with the diligence and excellence demonstrated by our committed staff. All of us have adapted to the changes brought on by COVID-19 and I thank the entire team for their consistent efforts amidst very dynamic times.

With this in mind, the T&T IFC is developing a comprehensive work programme for the upcoming quarter and fiscal year, that will maintain our momentum and place as ‘your resourceful ally’ in making T&T a FinTech-enabled hub and a ‘Cashless Society’. 

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