Central Bank Unveils Vision for 2031 with New Strategic Roadmap

Geisha Kow­lessar-Alon­zo

Se­nior Re­porter

geisha.kow­lessar@guardian.co.tt

The Cen­tral Bank of T&T (CBTT) has of­fi­cial­ly en­tered a trans­for­ma­tive tran­si­tion pe­ri­od, mark­ing the fi­nal months of its cur­rent strate­gic cy­cle while si­mul­ta­ne­ous­ly un­veil­ing a bold vi­sion for the next five years.

As the in­sti­tu­tion pre­pares to close the chap­ter on its 2021/22–2025/26 Strate­gic Plan, it has an­nounced the forth­com­ing roll­out of the 2026–2031 Strate­gic Plan, sched­uled to take ef­fect on Oc­to­ber 1, 2026, the bank post­ed on its web­site yes­ter­day.

This new roadmap is the re­sult of ex­ten­sive con­sul­ta­tions with staff and ex­ter­nal stake­hold­ers, en­sur­ing that the bank’s fu­ture pol­i­cy and op­er­a­tional ini­tia­tives are di­rect­ly aligned with mod­ern eco­nom­ic re­al­i­ties and its core man­date of mon­e­tary and fi­nan­cial sta­bil­i­ty.

A cen­tre­piece of this im­me­di­ate tran­si­tion is the Cur­ren­cy Tran­si­tion Pro­gramme, which would see a sig­nif­i­cant shift in the na­tion’s phys­i­cal ten­der.

By Au­gust 2026, the bank is set to cir­cu­late the new Se­ries 2026 TT 100 dol­lar note, fea­tur­ing the up­dat­ed na­tion­al Coat of Arms.

This roll­out is sup­port­ed by a com­pre­hen­sive tech­ni­cal up­grade to the coun­try’s cash-pro­cess­ing in­fra­struc­ture.

To en­sure a seam­less tran­si­tion for the pub­lic, a wide-scale ed­u­ca­tion­al cam­paign un­der the “Know Your Mon­ey” ini­tia­tive would launch in mid-2026. Si­mul­ta­ne­ous­ly, the bank is con­duct­ing a rig­or­ous in­ter­nal re­view of the five-cent coin.

With pro­duc­tion costs cur­rent­ly es­ti­mat­ed at near­ly five times its face val­ue, the bank is per­form­ing a de­tailed cost-ben­e­fit analy­sis to de­ter­mine whether the de­nom­i­na­tion would fol­low the one-cent coin in­to de­mon­eti­sa­tion by the end of the year.

Be­yond phys­i­cal cur­ren­cy, the Cen­tral Bank is mak­ing ag­gres­sive strides in mod­ernising the fi­nan­cial reg­u­la­to­ry en­vi­ron­ment.

The bank has con­firmed it is mov­ing to ful­ly op­er­a­tionalise an up­dat­ed risk-based su­per­vi­sion frame­work across the bank­ing and in­sur­ance sec­tors. This is bol­stered by the im­ple­men­ta­tion of the Na­tion­al AML/CFT/CPF Pol­i­cy and Strat­e­gy (2026–2029), which strength­ens com­pli­ance against mon­ey laun­der­ing and ter­ror­ism fi­nanc­ing.

Fur­ther­more, the bank said it re­mains com­mit­ted to re­solv­ing long-stand­ing fi­nan­cial mat­ters, specif­i­cal­ly pro­gress­ing the liq­ui­da­tion of British Amer­i­can In­sur­ance Com­pa­ny (Trinidad) Ltd (BAT) to en­sure the con­tin­ued pro­tec­tion of pol­i­cy­hold­ers and the sta­bil­i­ty of the wider mar­ket.

The dig­i­tal fron­tier re­mains a pri­or­i­ty as the bank works to rev­o­lu­tionise the na­tion­al pay­ments ecosys­tem.

Sig­nif­i­cant leg­isla­tive work is cur­rent­ly un­der­way to fi­nalise the Pay­ments Sys­tem and Ser­vices (PSS) Bill and Reg­u­la­tions.

This le­gal frame­work is de­signed to pro­vide a ro­bust foun­da­tion for fi­nan­cial tech­nol­o­gy in­no­va­tion while pro­tect­ing con­sumers.

The bank is al­ready see­ing the fruits of these ef­forts through the sup­port of reg­is­tered e-mon­ey is­suers like WamNow Tech­nolo­gies, which are ex­pand­ing dig­i­tal ser­vice of­fer­ings across the coun­try.

On a broad­er scale, the bank is look­ing to­ward re­gion­al in­te­gra­tion by pi­lot­ing the CARI­COM Pay­ment and Set­tle­ment Sys­tem (CAPSS), a move ex­pect­ed to stream­line cross-bor­der trans­ac­tions over the next twelve months.

The Cen­tral Bank is al­so em­brac­ing the fu­ture of reg­u­la­to­ry tech­nol­o­gy with the com­mence­ment of its Su­per­vi­so­ry Tech­nol­o­gy (SupTech) pi­lot phase.

By test­ing a spe­cialised dig­i­tal plat­form, the bank aims to mod­ernise its in­ter­nal process­es through re­al-time risk mon­i­tor­ing and en­hanced da­ta an­a­lyt­ics.

This pi­lot would val­i­date how the bank col­lects and in­ter­prets da­ta from reg­u­lat­ed en­ti­ties, paving the way for a full dig­i­tal-su­per­vi­sion roll­out.

The bank fur­ther ex­plained that out­comes from the pi­lot would in­form the im­ple­men­ta­tion roadmap, user-train­ing re­quire­ments, and the broad­er dig­i­tal-su­per­vi­sion strat­e­gy de­signed to strength­en the bank’s risk-based over­sight frame­work.

Among the bank’s key achieve­ments over the past six months in­clud­ed

its ex­pand­ed re­gion­al part­ner­ships at the his­toric CAF – De­vel­op­ment Bank of Latin Amer­i­ca and the Caribbean, board meet­ing.

On Oc­to­ber 10, 2025, Gov­er­nor Lar­ry Howai presided over the 186th Board of Di­rec­tors Meet­ing of CAF mark­ing the first time the in­sti­tu­tion con­vened its board in the Eng­lish-speak­ing Caribbean.