The central bank, Maldives Monetary Authority (MMA) has said the delays in establishing the national payment system are due to all local banks are being linked under the project.
Speaking at the Parliament's budget committee on Sunday, Governor Ali Hashim said hardware installation and testing is currently in progress.
'Delays are present because we want to link all of our preferred banks simultaneously. For this reason, even the banks have to make their own preparations. While you can see that the Bank of Maldives is already doing some work due to changes to the system, other banks are doing the same work,' the governor said.
The Maldives Payment System Development is a multi-phase initiative by MMA to address key needs of the Maldivian economy. The project's primary objective is to ensure that users can make and receive payments instantly irrespective of where they live or bank. The central bank signed an agreement in November 2020 with the Finnish company, TietoEVRY, to implement the system.
