Four years ago, we hosted a vital conversation on whether the Caribbean was ready for a regional stablecoin. Fast forward to today, CBDC adoption remains slow, central bank-led integration tools such as CAPSS face protracted timelines, and local businesses continue to struggle with high friction and fees when moving money across Caribbean borders.

In this throwback re-release of our conversation with Dr Jan Schröder (architect of CaribCoin) and Rodney Taylor (Secretary General of the Caribbean Telecommunications Union). We explore why a privately backed, asset-referenced regional stablecoin could be the missing financial infrastructure CARICOM needs, along with: what Carib$ stablecoin is, and what it hopes to achieve; how they would assess the state of fintech in the Caribbean region; key challenges that have been identified that could be affecting fintech innovation and development in the region; and what they think are the opportunities for crypto and/or digital cash in the Caribbean region.

 

This episode is also available on SoundCloud, Apple Podcasts, Spotify and Amazon Music.

Across the Caribbean region, the promise of financial technology has long been touted as a powerful catalyst for modernising economies, expanding financial inclusion, and driving regional integration. Yet, despite pioneering efforts to introduce Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDCs) like the Bahamas’ Sand Dollar and the Eastern Caribbean’s DCash, adoption rates among citizens and small-to-medium enterprises have largely lagged behind expectations. High onboarding friction, persistent public hesitation, and deeply entrenched conservative banking practices mean existing digital cash initiatives have struggled to reach the critical mass needed to transform everyday transactions.

Compounding these adoption hurdles is the agonisingly slow pace of broader institutional infrastructure rollouts, such as the Caribbean Payments Settlement System (CAPSS). Designed to streamline cross-border payments and foster seamless intra-regional trade, the protracted implementation of these centralised payment frameworks highlights the bureaucratic and technical bottlenecks plaguing financial harmonisation across multiple island jurisdictions. While regional leaders continue to champion frameworks like the CARICOM Single Market and Economy (CSME), the reality remains that moving money across borders within the archipelago is often slower, more complex, and more costly than sending funds internationally.

As the region grapples with these structural and adoption roadblocks, attention is increasingly turning toward alternative fintech mechanisms to bridge the gap. Could a privately-led, asset-backed regional stablecoin provide the agile, cross-border fix that official state channels have been too slow to deliver? In this episode, we unpack the state of Caribbean fintech, weigh the limitations of current CBDCs against the backdrop of initiatives like CaribCoin, and ask the ultimate question: is the region finally ready to embrace a decentralised digital future?

 

Introducing our guests

Dr Jan Schröder

In 1991, Dr. Jan Schröder stopped chasing elementary particles at CERN in Geneva, Switzerland. Since then, he has been highly active in the field of social innovation with a focus on decentralised network governance, social impact management and the application of Distributed Ledger technology. Internationally, he is renowned as the architect of the German initiative ‘Local Alliances for Family’, bringing together more than 25.000 institutions in over 700 local stakeholder networks with one billion media contacts.

Dr. Schröder is involved in several projects to leverage the possibilities of Distributed Ledger Technology to foster social impact. Tokenomics, social system architecture and governance are his core fields of knowledge. Recently, he has joined Contec as Manager for Innovation and Network Management in the health and care sector, responsible for a team of 20. He is also involved in CaribCoin, along with other ventures in the Caribbean region.

 

Secretary General Rodney Taylor

Rodney Taylor is the Secretary General (SG) of the Caribbean Telecommunications Union (CTU). Prior to that appointment, he was the Chief Digital Technology Officer of the Ministry of Innovation, Science and Smart Technology (MIST) in Barbados, where he was the technical lead on Barbados’ digital transformation to improve public sector service delivery through strategic use of innovation, science and SMART technology.

The SG has over 20 years of professional experience, which includes managing the Information Systems Unit in Barbados’ Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade and its overseas missions. He also previously served as the Business Development and Operations Manager of the CTU, where he worked with regional governments in the development of policies to govern ICT and represented the region in many international ICT conferences. He also led the work to operationalise the CTU’s Caribbean Centre of Excellence, to offer consultancy services to the Member States and others.

 

Insights into our conversation

This conversation preceded a webinar organised by the CTU on Demystifying Cryptocurrency and Digital Cash in the Caribbean, at which the concept of CaribCoin was presented. At the time, and as evident in the discussion with Dr Schröder and SG Taylor, some CBDCs had been launched in the region, and the outlook appeared positive. Hence, CaribCoin was seen as a solution to facilitate regional trade and payment—not necessarily the solution—but an option to give consumers choice.

However, in the intervening years, CBDC adoption has been low in the region, as noted earlier, but also CaribCoin has been wound down. Though a likely challenge was the take-up by businesses, it could be argued that four years later, as the ease of doing business in the Caribbean has become more challenging and the cost of doing business more expensive, consumers may be more inclined to favourably consider an option such as CaribCoin.

Nevertheless, below are a few of the questions posed to our guests during our conversation.

  1. Why is the CTU paying attention to fintech in the region, and specifically cryptocurrency and digital cash, and fostering conversations on the issue?
  2. What is Carib$ stablecoin, and what does it hope to achieve?
  3. One of the compelling reasons for creating digital currency has been to increase financial inclusion among Caribbean SMEs and citizens. However, it appears that the creation of digital cash wallets has been limited. It thus seems that the argument for digital currency might be flawed. What are your thoughts?
  4. One of the big challenges in the region’s banking and financial services sector is the perception of risk, which has resulted in our banks being incredibly conservative and restrictive. How might we be able to better integrate our traditional banking and fintech ecosystems, as it seems that they will become increasingly siloed over time?
  5. How would you assess the state of fintech in the Caribbean region?
  6. Are there any key challenges that you have identified that could be affecting fintech innovation and development in the region?
  7. What do you think are the opportunities for crypto and/or digital cash in the Caribbean region?

 

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Select links

Below are links to some of the organisations and resources that either were mentioned during the episode, or otherwise, might be useful:

 

 

Images credit:  Caribbean Telecommunications Union;  J Schröder; Steve Buissinne (Pixabay): pvproductions (Magnific); Andreas Volz (Pixabay)

Music credit: The Last Word (Oui Ma Chérie), by Andy Narrell