The Eastern Caribbean Central Bank (ECCB) and the Barbados-based fintech company, Bitt Inc. signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to conduct a fintech pilot on blockchain technology in the ECCB member countries. The MOU was signed in Basseterre, St Kitts and Nevis on March 13. This pilot aims to develop a secure, resilient digital payment and settlement platform with embedded regional and global compliance; and the issuance of a digital Eastern Caribbean currency which will operate alongside the physical Eastern Caribbean currency. Both entities will work closely to develop, deploy and test technology which will help improve the risk profile of the Eastern Caribbean Currency Union (ECCU) and mitigate against the trend of de-risking by the region's correspondent banking partners.