What We Do

Banker to the Commercial Banks
The Central Bank is required in conjunction with the commercial banks to establish and maintain a clearinghouse for cheques. The clearing and settlement arrangements are currently being modernized to make them more efficient and to bring them closer in line with international best practices. Payment instruments currently used include cheques, electronic funds transfers, standing orders, postal and money orders, vouchers/coupons, debit/credit cards, Electronic Funds Transfer at Point of Sales (EFTPOS) payments and travellers’ cheques.

The functioning of the payment systems relies on the availability of highly efficient messaging systems and modern and reliable communication facilities. For this reason, the Central Bank has recently upgraded the clearance and settlement system for inter-bank payments. This upgraded Real Time Gross Settlement system is called safe-tt (pronounced ‘safety’). In 2005, the commercial banks, together with the Central Bank, will introduce an automated system for the clearance and settlement of retail electronic transactions.

The Real Time Gross Settlement System will have automated linkages to the Automated Clearing House, the Government Securities Depository at the Central Bank and the Central Securities Depository at the Trinidad and Tobago Stock Exchange (TTSE).