By LCN Newsroom
Guyana's Fast Pay system, announced on 17 May 2026, and a seat in the CARICOM Payment and Settlement System (CAPSS) could cut charges like the 4 to 6% the IMF found in the Eastern Caribbean, helping firms trade outside oil.
When President Irfaan Ali announced Fast Pay at the Guyana Bank for Trade and Industry's 190th anniversary gala on 17 May, he described a domestic rail: money moving between Guyanese bank accounts in seconds, at any hour. On 18 September, central bankers from Trinidad and Tobago, Barbados, the Eastern Caribbean and The Bahamas met in Port of Spain to move a regional rail towards a pilot. Guyana was not at that table.
The two systems solve different problems. Fast Pay moves money inside Guyana. The CARICOM Payment and Settlement System (CAPSS) would move it between member states in their own currencies. For rice millers, poultry farmers, agro-processors and service firms, whose sector the IMF expects to grow about 7% a year to 2031, the regional rail may matter as much as the domestic one.
What did Guyana announce in May, and where does it stand?
Guyana announced Fast Pay, a real-time domestic payment system linking participating commercial banks, on 17 May 2026 and gave 2 June as its go-live date.
According to the Office of the President, customers of participating banks would send and receive money instantly, 24 hours a day, through mobile and internet banking. The same announcement tied Fast Pay to India's Unified Payments Interface (UPI) and confirmed licences for Citibank N.A., Crown Agents and One Americas, none of which will take retail deposits. LCN reported the launch date at the time in Guyana's Fast Pay and UPI integration, and examined the new licences in what three new banking licences mean for Guyana.
The public record since then is thinner than the announcement. On 3 June, Minister of Public Service, Government Efficiency and Implementation Zulfikar Ally still referred to "the upcoming FastPay platform", iNews Guyana reported. On 3 August, the Guyana Chronicle noted that the government's national payment system now carries a year-end 2026 target. As of September 2026, LCN has found no Bank of Guyana notice setting out Fast Pay's fees, transaction limits or full list of participating banks.
How would Guyana's local payment system work?
Fast Pay is expected to follow the UPI model: a banking app sends a payment request through the payer's bank to a central switch, which routes it to the recipient's bank within seconds.
LCN set out this chain in detail in May in Paying Amazon from Georgetown. In simple terms, a payment moves like this:
- The payer opens a banking app and scans a QR code or types the recipient's payment address instead of an account number.
- The app sends the request to the payer's bank.
- The bank passes it to a central switch.
- The switch looks up the address and finds the recipient's bank.
- The payer confirms with a PIN.
- The switch tells one bank to debit and the other to credit. Both customers see the result in seconds.
- The banks square their balances with each other through the Bank of Guyana.
The last step is the one to watch. The speed happens at the customer layer. In India, the banks behind UPI settle their net positions in several cycles each day, according to circulars from the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI). The Bank of Guyana has not published whether Fast Pay's interbank settlement will run in real time or in batches.
For a customer, the difference is invisible. For a bank, it shapes how much cash it must hold in reserve. Bank of Guyana Governor Dr Gobind Ganga put the customer view plainly: anyone "with an app can do so from your home, job or on the road," Guyana Times reported. The same report said QR, person-to-person and merchant payments through UPI are targeted for the end of 2026.
That merchant layer is where small traders gain most. A vendor at Bourda Market or a shop in Anna Regina could accept payment by QR code without renting a card terminal. LCN estimated in its May report on Fast Pay that such payments could avoid card merchant fees of about 3%.
What is CAPSS, and why is Guyana outside the pilot?
CAPSS is a planned CARICOM system for instant cross-border payments settled in members' own currencies, modelled on Afreximbank's Pan-African Payment and Settlement System (PAPSS) and overseen by the region's central bank governors.
All 11 CARICOM central banks adopted PAPSS for intra-regional trade in October 2023, according to PAPSS. A proof of concept ran in Nassau from 19 to 21 February 2025 with The Bahamas, Barbados, Suriname and Trinidad and Tobago, the Trinidad Express reported. In November 2025, governors meeting in Curaçao named the pilot group: The Bahamas, Barbados, Trinidad and Tobago and the eight-member Eastern Caribbean Currency Union, the newspaper reported in December. Guyana is not on that list.
The Eastern Caribbean Central Bank (ECCB) has described the goal as "moving money faster and cheaper and reducing reliance on correspondent banks," in the words of its Governor Timothy Antoine. In August 2025, Antoine used Guyana as his example: a payment from Grenada to Guyana could settle in Eastern Caribbean and Guyanese dollars, St Vincent Times reported. The central banks would still settle with each other in US dollars in the background.
The 18 September meeting in Port of Spain ended with work still directed towards a pilot, according to the Central Bank of Trinidad and Tobago. CAPSS is not yet live in any member state. LCN covered that meeting today in Four Caribbean Governors Met Africa's Payment System in Port of Spain.
Guyana's absence stands out. In June 2024, Guyana placed Afreximbank's payment system on the CARICOM agenda ahead of the Grenada summit, the Trinidad Guardian reported. Since then, Guyana has built its domestic rail with India instead. The Bank of Guyana has not said publicly whether it intends to seek a place in the CAPSS pilot.
How could the two systems help Guyanese businesses outside oil?
Together they would cut the cost and the wait of getting paid: Fast Pay inside Guyana, CAPSS across CARICOM borders. Both matter most to small firms that run on thin margins and slow receivables.
The stakes sit in the mid-year numbers. Guyana's non-oil economy grew 10.1% in the first half of 2026, Kaieteur News reported. The Mid-Year Report lowered the full-year non-oil forecast to 10.2%, from 10.8% in Budget 2026. Agriculture shrank 0.5%, and manufacturing grew 3%. LCN broke down those figures in Guyana's economy grew 33.3 per cent. APNU parliamentary leader Terrence Campbell noted that petroleum, gas and support services accounted for 78.9% of real GDP in the first half, and crude oil for 92.9% of merchandise export earnings, Demerara Waves reported.
The goods that would use a regional rail already exist. Rice output rose from 500,000 to 825,000 tonnes between 2020 and 2025, and poultry from 43,736 to 91,382 tonnes, the Guyana Chronicle reported. The government aims to make Guyana a reliable food supplier to the Caribbean and cut the region's food import bill, the same report said.
Here is where each rail would reach:
| Business | What changes | Which rail |
|---|---|---|
| Market vendors and micro-retailers | QR payments without a card terminal; less cash to carry | Fast Pay, once UPI merchant payments arrive |
| Agro-processors selling to Barbados, Trinidad and the OECS | Paid in local currency without a US correspondent bank in the middle | CAPSS, only if Guyana joins |
| Service firms billing regional clients | Faster receipt of fees at lower cost | CAPSS, only if Guyana joins |
| Small borrowers | A traceable record of sales through bank accounts | Fast Pay |
The cost of the current route is well documented. An IMF working paper published in June 2024 found card and account-transfer charges of 4 to 6% per transaction in the Eastern Caribbean. The same paper found intra-regional trade in Latin America and the Caribbean runs 40% below comparable regions for goods and 50% for services. In a 2015 World Bank survey, 69% of Caribbean banks reported a moderate or significant decline in correspondent banking relationships, as LCN reported in A Designation Is Not a Conviction.
Slow money compounds the problem. Caribbean small businesses often wait more than 90 days to be paid, LCN reported in The 90-day wait, citing IDB Invest and World Bank data.
The timing also matters for credit. The Guyana Development Bank opens on 5 October with zero-interest, collateral-free loans of up to G$3 million. A firm whose sales flow through bank accounts can show a lender a record that a cash business cannot. See The Guyana Development Bank Act is in force.
What are the limits?
Payment rails remove one friction, not all of them. An IMF working paper published in May 2026 found that shipping and air links weigh more heavily on Caribbean trade than financial connectivity does.
A cheaper payment does not fill a ship that sails once a fortnight. Other limits apply too:
- CAPSS is not live anywhere, and Guyana is outside the named pilot group.
- Central banks would still settle with each other in US dollars under the ECCB's description of the design.
- Fast Pay has no published fee schedule.
- Digital payments bring new fraud. Guyana's Financial Intelligence Unit recorded fraud cases rising from 28 in 2023 to 60 in 2024, LCN reported in May.
- A vendor needs a bank account and a smartphone before any rail helps.
What should businesses watch next?
Four signals will show whether these rails reach non-oil firms:
- A Bank of Guyana notice confirming Fast Pay's live status, fees, limits and participating banks, against the year-end target the Guyana Chronicle noted.
- UPI merchant and QR payments, expected by the end of 2026.
- Any statement from the Bank of Guyana on joining the CAPSS pilot or its next phase.
- Loan disbursements at the Guyana Development Bank from 5 October.
Fast Pay was announced in May. CAPSS moved closer to a pilot this week without Guyana. For the non-oil businesses the IMF expects to grow about 7% a year, the Bank of Guyana's next statement on both rails will set how quickly they can get paid.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is Fast Pay in Guyana?
Fast Pay is a domestic instant-payment system announced by President Irfaan Ali on 17 May 2026. It lets customers of participating banks send money between accounts in seconds, at any hour, through mobile and internet banking.
Is Fast Pay live?
The Office of the President gave 2 June 2026 as the launch date. As of September 2026, the Bank of Guyana has not published fees, limits or a full list of participating banks, and the Guyana Chronicle noted in August a year-end 2026 target for the national payment system.
What is CAPSS?
The CARICOM Payment and Settlement System (CAPSS) is a planned regional system for instant cross-border payments in members' own currencies. It is modelled on Afreximbank's PAPSS and is not yet live.
Has Guyana joined CAPSS?
Guyana is not in the named pilot group of The Bahamas, Barbados, Trinidad and Tobago and the Eastern Caribbean Currency Union. The Bank of Guyana has not said publicly whether it will seek a place.
How would the systems help small businesses?
Fast Pay would let vendors take QR payments without card terminals. CAPSS would let exporters and service firms get paid by CARICOM buyers in local currency, without routing through US correspondent banks.