The payment industry continues to evolve globally with the help of technology and MasterCard, a leading global payments company, is committed to seeing the industry grow in Trinidad and Tobago.

There are key drivers in the Latin America and Caribbean region and locally that are accelerating the trend towards a cashless society. The main drivers are related to demographic trends, such as the rise of the global middle class, the unbanked, and the underbanked; secular trends, such as the increase in electronic payments, acceptance and global travel; the expansion of new customer types and new technologies and, the evolving role of governments in different parts of the world.

He noted with technology it brings products such as prepaid cards as well as the smart cards. Prepaid cards can bring the electronification of payments into the mass element not only for TT but around the world. The world is also using chips, the smart cards which is an amazing way of controlling fraud and making transactions more secure.We want to open the eyes of our bank customers so they can be proactive in bringing the industry to the TT market so the consumers can benefit,” Alvarez explained.

He added that fraud is a small fraction compared to the amount of transactions that occur. “Even though it is an issue it is a manageable issue and for MasterCard it is a global priority to develop tools that allow us to control and manage fraud more effectively,” he said.

“We are hoping to open the eyes of the local banking community to where the future is going, and they themselves can be more creative and more aggressive in finding ways to accelerate the penetration of electronic payments in TT,” he said.