> ## Content Index > Fetch the complete content index at: https://www.lacaribenanews.com/llms.txt > Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further. # Trinidad Is Building Two Payment Systems, One With India and One With Africa. Guyana Has Signed for One. - URL: https://www.lacaribenanews.com/trinidad-guyana-india-upi-capss-papss-payment-rails-2026/ - Published: 2026-09-29T12:08:41.000Z - Updated: 2026-10-04T05:16:35.000Z - Description: Trinidad and Tobago is building a national payment system with India's NPCI International and chairs the committee building a cross-border one on Africa's model. Guyana signed with the same Indian body and is not in the regional pilot group. - Author: Theon Alleyne - Tags: Business, CARICOM, Analysis **Quick summary:** Trinidad and Tobago is building a national payment system with India's NPCI International and chairs the committee building a cross-border one on Africa's model. Guyana signed with the same Indian body in November 2024 and is not in the regional system's pilot group. Neither country's national system is confirmed live. By LCN Business Desk Trinidad and Tobago is wiring itself into two payment systems at once. One is national, built to an Indian design. The other is regional, built to an African one, and a Trinidadian central banker chairs the committee delivering it. Chandradath Singh, the country's High Commissioner to India, told a Republic Day event marking fifty years of the republic that Trinidad is actively pursuing a system based on India's Unified Payments Interface. The agreement behind that remark is two years old. NPCI International Payments Limited signed with Trinidad and Tobago's Ministry of Digital Transformation on 10 September 2024, with an exchange ceremony in Port of Spain on 26 September. The [ministry's own account](https://mpaai.gov.tt/news/ministry-signs-agreement-real-time-payment-platform?ref=lacaribenanews.com) sets out a platform for person-to-person, person-to-merchant and government-to-person payments, modelled on India's system, with the government taking full ownership and a skills transfer. It names the Ministry of Finance, the Central Bank of Trinidad and Tobago and the private banks as collaborators. It publishes no delivery date and no cost. The ministry that signed it now operates as the Ministry of Public Administration and Artificial Intelligence. ## What did each country sign with India? Both signed with the same Indian body within ten weeks of each other. When Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited Georgetown on 20 November 2024 he signed ten memoranda with President Irfaan Ali. The eighth was between NPCI International Payments Ltd and the Government of Guyana. President Ali announced Fast Pay at the Guyana Bank for Trade and Industry's 190th anniversary on 17 May 2026 and gave 2 June as the go-live date, tying the system to India's UPI. That sequence was set out in [Guyana's Fast Pay and UPI Integration](https://www.lacaribenanews.com/guyana-fast-pay-upi-launch-june-2026/). The date passed without confirmation. On 3 June the Minister of Public Service, Government Efficiency and Implementation still described "the upcoming FastPay platform". On 3 August the Guyana Chronicle recorded a year-end 2026 target for the national payment system. On the public record this newspaper can find, no notice from the Bank of Guyana sets out Fast Pay's fees, transaction limits or the list of participating banks, and none confirms a first day of transactions. | | Trinidad and Tobago | Guyana | | ------------------------------ | ---------------------------------- | ----------------------------------- | | Signed with NPCI International | 10 September 2024 | 20 November 2024 | | Counterparty | Ministry of Digital Transformation | Government of Guyana, by memorandum | | Announced go-live | None published | 2 June 2026 | | Confirmed live | No | No | | Published fees or limits | No | No | Neither national system has been shown to be running. The difference between the two countries is not speed. It is that one of them is building a second rail as well. ## What is the second system, and who is in it? A regional one, built on an African design, and Trinidad is at the centre of it. The CARICOM Payment and Settlement System would move money between member states in their own currencies rather than through the United States dollar. It is modelled on the Pan-African Payment and Settlement System, which Afreximbank developed and which eleven Caribbean central banks adopted in Cairo on 26 October 2023 as their preferred route for settling intra-regional trade. Governors meeting in Curaçao in November 2025 named the pilot group: The Bahamas, Barbados, Trinidad and Tobago, and the eight-member Eastern Caribbean Currency Union. Guyana is not on that list. On 18 September the Central Bank of Trinidad and Tobago hosted the governors of Barbados, the Eastern Caribbean and The Bahamas, with a team from PAPSS, to move the system towards a pilot. Its deputy governor, Dr Dorian Noel, chairs the CAPSS Steering Committee. The release names no representative of the Bank of Guyana. That meeting was reported in [Four Caribbean Governors Met Africa's Payment System in Port of Spain](https://www.lacaribenanews.com/caricom-capss-papss-central-banks-port-of-spain-2026/). "The PAPSS experience offers valuable practical insights for the Caribbean as we continue to explore better options for regional payments that are less reliant on our foreign reserve currencies," Dr Noel said. > One rail moves money inside a country. The other moves it between countries without converting into someone else's currency first. Guyana has signed for the first and is not in the pilot group for the second. ## Why does the cross-border system matter to a Guyanese business? Because the charge it removes is the one exporters actually pay. The International Monetary Fund found correspondent banking costs of 4 to 6 per cent in the Eastern Caribbean, and a regional rail settling in local currencies is aimed squarely at that. For rice millers, poultry farmers, agro-processors and service firms, the cross-border rail may matter more than the domestic one, as set out in [Guyana's Fast Pay and CAPSS](https://www.lacaribenanews.com/guyana-fast-pay-capss-non-oil-firms-2026/). The timing is immediate. The Guyana Development Bank began processing applications this month, and its borrowers are the firms that would use such a rail, a point made in [The Development Bank Opens on 5 October](https://www.lacaribenanews.com/guyana-development-bank-october-payments-capss-sankofa-2026/). The International Monetary Fund's review of Guyana's foreign exchange market named taking trade off the United States dollar as one route open to the authorities, reported in [the Fund's finding that the market is tight](https://www.lacaribenanews.com/imf-guyana-fx-market-tight-investment-imports-measures-2026/). None of this makes the regional rail a solved problem. It is not live anywhere. Central banks would still settle with each other in United States dollars under the Eastern Caribbean Central Bank's description of the design. Freight and standards weigh more heavily on Caribbean trade than payment charges do, and a cheaper payment does not fill a ship that sails once a fortnight. ## What would settle the open questions? Three answers, each held by an institution that could give it today. The Bank of Guyana has not said publicly whether it will seek a place in the pilot group, or whether Fast Pay is processing transactions. NPCI International has published no delivery date for either country. And neither Trinidad's ministry nor the Central Bank of Trinidad and Tobago has addressed how a nationally owned platform built on the Indian model would connect to a regional system built on the African one, which is the question that decides whether the two rails meet or run in parallel. ### What the title card shows 10 September 2024: the date Trinidad and Tobago's Ministry of Digital Transformation signed with NPCI International Payments Limited, with the exchange ceremony in Port of Spain on 26 September. Source: Ministry of Public Administration and Artificial Intelligence. 20 November 2024: the date India and Guyana signed ten memoranda in Georgetown, the eighth of them with NPCI International Payments Ltd. 2 June 2026: the go-live date President Ali gave for Fast Pay. No notice from the Bank of Guyana confirms a first day of transactions. Neither country has a confirmed live system. Four plus eight: the CAPSS pilot group named in Curaçao in November 2025, being The Bahamas, Barbados, Trinidad and Tobago and the eight members of the Eastern Caribbean Currency Union. Guyana is not among them. 26 October 2023: the date eleven Caribbean central banks meeting in Cairo adopted the Pan-African Payment and Settlement System as their preferred route for settling intra-regional trade. 4 to 6 per cent: the correspondent banking cost the International Monetary Fund found in the Eastern Caribbean. ## Frequently Asked Questions What has each country signed with India's NPCI International? Trinidad and Tobago signed on 10 September 2024, with an exchange ceremony on 26 September, through its Ministry of Digital Transformation. Guyana signed on 20 November 2024, as the eighth of ten memoranda concluded during Prime Minister Modi's visit to Georgetown. Is either system live? Neither has been confirmed live. Trinidad's agreement publishes no delivery date. Guyana announced 2 June 2026 for Fast Pay, and on the public record this newspaper can find, no Bank of Guyana notice confirms a first day of transactions, fees, limits or participating banks. What is CAPSS and how does it differ from UPI? The CARICOM Payment and Settlement System would move money between member states in their own currencies, reducing the use of the United States dollar as an intermediary. A UPI-style platform moves money inside one country between accounts at domestic banks. They solve different problems and are not substitutes. Is Guyana part of CAPSS? Guyana is not in the pilot group named by governors in Curaçao in November 2025, which is The Bahamas, Barbados, Trinidad and Tobago and the eight-member Eastern Caribbean Currency Union. The Bank of Guyana has not said publicly whether it will seek a place. What would a regional rail save? The International Monetary Fund found correspondent banking costs of 4 to 6 per cent in the Eastern Caribbean. CAPSS is aimed at that charge. It is not live anywhere, and under the Eastern Caribbean Central Bank's description central banks would still settle with each other in United States dollars. ### Disclosure The May 2026 analysis of Fast Pay and UPI referred to above was written by Theon Alleyne, the proprietor of La Caribeña News, who is a director of the Guyana Manufacturing and Services Association, whose membership includes firms that would use a regional payment rail.