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Trinidad and Tobago has no single unified PSP/EMI licensing statute; payments oversight is exercised by the Central Bank of Trinidad and Tobago (CBTT) under the Central Bank Act Chap 79:02 (s.36(cc)) and the Financial Institutions Act Chap 79:09 (FIA), supplemented by Payment Systems Guidelines and the E-Money Issuer Order 2020 (as amended 2023). A modern Payment Systems and Services Bill to consolidate and expand CBTT's licensing/enforcement powers is in public consultation and expected to be laid in Parliament in September 2026.
The existing licensing gateway itself is well established and unchanged in its basic structure: any entity licensed under the Financial Institutions Act Chap 79:09 may issue e-money subject to Central Bank approval. The Central Bank's own published register of e-money issuers and payment service providers, current as at 1 August 2026, lists PayWise, PESH Money, TSTT-PAYPR, Massy's WIDiT, WamNow Technologies and Convenience Pay Technologies, alongside Republic Bank's Endcash wallet, which was approved separately under the Central Bank's New Product Guidelines rather than through the standard e-money licensing route. This confirms that Trinidad and Tobago already has a functioning, if modest, population of licensed non-bank and bank-affiliated e-money issuers prior to any gambling-sector development.
What remains unresolved is the comprehensive Payment Systems and Services Bill and its accompanying regulations, which would create a systemic-designation power and strengthen safeguarding and consumer-protection rules for payment providers generally. As at the most recent circular located this cycle, the Bill remained at consultation stage, with no enactment identified. The Bill's progress is now, per the Minister's statement, linked to the gambling-sector rollout timeline, which raises the practical stakes of its finalisation beyond the payments sector's own internal reform calendar.
Outlook
The central question to track is whether the draft Payment Systems and Services Bill moves from consultation to enactment on a schedule consistent with the gambling sector's targeted January 2027 launch date. Given the explicit ministerial linkage between the two tracks, delay in the Bill's progress would now carry consequences for the gambling sector's own market-access timeline, not only for the payments sector's reform agenda. Separately, watch whether any of the entities on the Central Bank's existing e-money issuer and payment service provider register, or a new entrant, emerges as the designated payment rail for the remote-gambling sector once licensing opens on the gambling side.
Licensing, Authorisation & Market Access
The Central Bank of Trinidad and Tobago's public consultation on the draft Payment Systems and Services (PSS) Bill and accompanying regulations closed on 20 June 2026. The draft bill, as described by the Central Bank, introduces a regulatory sandbox for payment innovation, simplified licensing procedures, enhanced interoperability requirements across payment systems, and an alternative dispute resolution mechanism for payment complaints. The bill has not yet been enacted. Separately, in connection with the Remote Gambling Order reform moving through the Senate, government ministers stated that oversight of gambling-sector payment flows will run through the existing competent authorities, specifically the Gambling Control Commission and the Central Bank. This statement ties a sector-specific liberalisation reform directly to the Central Bank's existing and developing payment-licensing architecture, though it was reported through a single press account of a ministerial statement rather than an official Hansard transcript or regulatory publication.
The licensing and market-access picture in Trinidad and Tobago is therefore in a state of transition: the existing licensing architecture administered by the Central Bank continues to operate, while the draft PSS Bill, if enacted, would introduce a materially simplified and sandboxed route for new entrants, and the gambling sector's payment oversight has been stated as running through the same Central Bank architecture once the gambling reform's framework becomes operational.
Outlook
Whether and when the draft PSS Bill is enacted following the close of its consultation on 20 June 2026 is the principal licensing-and-market-access item to watch. No enactment date has been confirmed. The interaction between the bill's proposed sandbox and simplified-licensing provisions and the gambling sector's stated payment-oversight architecture is a further point to watch, as the two reforms are proceeding on separate but potentially converging timelines.
Sources and findings (8)
- T1https://www.central-bank.org.tt/registration-payment-service-providers-bill-payment-service-providers-and/retrieved
- T1https://www.central-bank.org.tt/fintech-and-payments/payment-services/retrieved
- T1https://www.central-bank.org.tt/fintech-and-payments/payment-system-landscape/retrieved
- T1https://foreign.gov.tt/documents/1391/E-Money_-_LN2023_391_240130_095235.pdfretrieved
- T1https://www.elibrary.imf.org/view/journals/002/2023/322/article-A001-en.xmlretrieved
- T1https://www.central-bank.org.tt/fintech-and-payments/payment-services/retrieved
- T3https://www.ttt.live/public-consultations-continue-on-draft-payment-systems-and-services-bill/retrieved
- T1https://www.central-bank.org.tt/central-bank-registers-gracekennedy-trinidad-tobago-limited-as-a-payment-service-provider-in-trinidad-and-tobago/retrieved