Caribbean Integrated Financial Services, known as CarIFS, provides world-class financial service to every Barbadian.
And, added Mike Parris, director of Prism Services Inc. – which manages and operates the island’s national debit network – CarIFS has made Barbados more productive, bringing huge gains to the economy.
“When we created the service in June 1999, Bajans wasted millions of unproductive hours queuing to receive and access their money. Today most companies pay staff through direct bank transfer, allowing individuals to draw wages directly from ATMs or purchase goods at CarIFS merchant terminals outside of banking hours and irrespective of an individual’s bank,” he said.
Parris described CarIFS as a real “national treasure” and said it had successfully created domestic savings for the country equivalent to the time we would save if “we could remove all the waiting time associated with roundabouts, stop lights, restricted passing zones and roadworks on our roads today”.
“Consider how much more efficient Barbados could be if we were able to remove the impediments on our road system as we have been able to achieve on our financial systems. It’s worth millions.”
The CarIFS network, conceived and created by Bajans, sustains 20 local jobs and Parris said that it conformed to and exceeded world financial standards upheld by international banks, financial institutions and the Central Bank of Barbados.
Since 1999 CarIFS has maintained 100 per cent uptime even in the face of hurricanes, power failures and telecommunications glitches.
Cardholders and merchants who use the CarIFS system not only effect huge national savings and benefit from reduced costs, but they also keep Barbadians employed and stem foreign exchange outflows for processing services. (PR)
