The Central Bank of The Bahamas. FILE Tony Grant Jr.
The Central Bank of The Bahamas (CBOB) has issued a request for proposals to find qualified firms to bid on the development of a fast payment system (FPS), the CBOB said in a statement on Friday.
The CBOB said an FPS is aligned to the government’s efforts to improve payment efficiency through its Payments Systems Modernization Initiative (PSMI).
“This project seeks to guide the implementation of an FPS solution that enables real-time payments in The Bahamas on a continuous basis,” the Central bank said in its statement.
“The system should guarantee interoperability with existing payments and settlements platforms in The Bahamas, i.e., the Automated Clearing House (ACH), the Real Time Gross Settlement System (RTGS), and the Bahamas Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC), Sand Dollar.
“The solution should also facilitate both direct and indirect participation from commercial banks, credit unions and other payment service institutions that operate in the domestic payments space.”
According to the Central Banks’s statement, the successful bidder would design, supply, implement and provide ongoing support for the FPS solution they develop.
The CBOB statement intends for this successful partner to be qualified, experienced, and have a “proven track record” of delivering these kinds of services.
A World Bank document looking at FPSs globally explains that they simply allow for the real-time or near real-time transfer of funds, bringing the exchange of money electronically closer to the real-time settlement of cash transactions. The now five-year-old World Bank document explains: “Currently, over 60 countries have an FPS in place, and several others have announced their plans to go live. The basic principle among all the countries remains the same — that is, to provide a real-time, 24/7 fund-transfer facility.”
The bank is asking for all proposals to be emailed to its tenders committee. The statement explains that the submission deadline is December 19, 2025, while the deadlines for questions related to the bid is the end of this month.
