In this conversation with Debra LePage and Ramon Caracas from Payment Spayce, and George Thomas from Sagicor Bank, they detail their strategy of growth through seamless onboarding, scalability, and strategic partnerships
Strategic decisions focused on seamless onboarding and scalability are fueling the company’s annual growth of roughly 25%, driven mainly by word-of-mouth. LePage and Caracas emphasized that partnerships and acquisitions are vital for elevating product value and recently closed an acquisition of a regulated trust company, establishing them as a financial entity in Canada, and plan for more acquisitions this year.
A key partnership involved developing a Real-Time Payment (RTP) system for a bank, making them a technology partner in that department, with RTP offering a service 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year, a significant leap over typical bank offerings limited to business hours. This speed gave their clients a competitive edge, allowing them to market their services to gain more business.
Thomas discussed digital banking in the Caribbean, noting the rollout of BIMPAY (the interbank payment system for Barbados) and anticipating similar island projects leading to interconnection. The region is seeing increased South-South cooperation with Sub-Saharan Africa, with digital payments expanding from domestic to regional and international levels. The faster payments rail is a crucial precursor to open banking, which will accelerate opportunities for fintech entrepreneurs.
Thomas expects to see local variants in areas like rideshare and food delivery, alongside e-commerce and m-commerce growth. Ultimately, technologies such as tokenization and wearables (like embedded financial wristbands for festivals) will emerge, simplifying payments and rightsizing transaction costs across the Caribbean.
