The government of St Vincent and the Grenadines says it is working with the Eastern Caribbean Central Bank (ECCB) to improve access to international payment systems as part of broader efforts to modernize the country’s financial infrastructure and support entrepreneurs.
Prime Minister Dr. Godwin Friday said the current banking and payment environment was limiting opportunities for businesses, creatives, and online entrepreneurs.
Speaking during a radio interview, Dr. Friday said many Vincentians involved in digital commerce faced difficulties receiving payments from overseas customers.
“There’s so many products that people are selling now the question is, how am I going to get paid here?” he said, according to the report.
The Prime Minister said discussions were taking place with the ECCB to improve international payment access and create systems that better support the “new economy”, including digital business activity and creative industries.
The issue has become increasingly important across the Eastern Caribbean as governments and central banks seek alternatives to traditional banking systems, which businesses often complain are slow, expensive, and heavily dependent on overseas correspondent banks.
Last year, ECCB Governor Timothy Antoine announced plans for a regional Caricom Payments and Settlement System (CAPSS), designed to allow faster cross-border payments using local currencies rather than relying heavily on the US dollar.
The ECCB has also been moving toward broader reform of the region’s payment infrastructure.
In March 2025, the central bank published a new Payment System and Services Bill aimed at strengthening regulation, consumer protection, and digital payment innovation across the Eastern Caribbean Currency Union.
The proposed legislation seeks to create a more modern framework for electronic payments, digital wallets and financial technology providers.
Efforts to modernize payments in the region have accelerated following the ECCB’s earlier DCash initiative, which launched in St Vincent and the Grenadines in 2021 after the eruption of La Soufrière volcano. The digital EC dollar project was introduced in part to improve financial inclusion and to make transactions faster and more accessible.
However, earlier this year, the ECCB announced that development of DCash 2.0 had been suspended while the bank prioritized faster regional payment systems and participation in wider Caricom settlement initiatives. The push for payment reform also comes amid wider concerns about access to credit and financial services within the Eastern Caribbean.
In April, ECCB Governor Antoine warned that commercial banks across the region were holding large levels of deposits while many small businesses and entrepreneurs continued to struggle accessing financing.
St Vincent and the Grenadines has also been expanding its own digital transformation agenda.
The government previously introduced electronic payment systems for some public services and has been developing a wider e-government payment platform intended to improve efficiency and reduce the need for physical transactions.