Bitt is a Financial Technology company that utilises distributed ledger technology to improve speed, efficiency and significantly reduce the costs of the payment system. Barbados and the Caribbean region have been plagued by persistent low economic growth, a savings crisis and the challenge of "derisking", where international banks have in some cases ceased operations with local banks to reduce their perceived risk profiles.
Currently, the pace of the payment system acts as a bottleneck for economic activity. It harkens back to a time when paper contracts were shipped back and forth between counterparties for physical signature in order to finalise a contract. Much like how email sped up the pace of doing business, a jump to real-time payments can also accelerate economic activity. By reducing time of payroll, accounts receivables and other financial interactions, Bitt can speed up the money conversion cycle of a business or government department.
Fee structures in traditional payment systems are based on sharing arrangements between vast networks of financial institutions; each taking a processing fee and using control of their financial channel to their benefit. These fees, often high and frictional, make sending money throughout the Caribbean quite cumbersome and costly.
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