Electronic Transfer Bill to Speed Up Financial Transactions

John Briceño

At last week’s meeting at the House of Representatives, there were several bills introduced which may not have gotten a lot of public attention, but could help to make doing business in Belize a little easier. Among these was the bill for an act to provide regulations on transfer of money electronically. According to Prime Minister John Briceño, it is a piece of legislations that the banking sector has been clamoring for.

Prime Minister John Briceño

“The electronic transaction bill goes in line with Plan Belize. It seeks to facilitate transactions electronically by recognizing and validating the legality of electronic documents in an effort to promote electronic commerce and lessen the administrative burdens associated with doing business without compromising the legal integrity of the process. In many instances, as it is right now, some of these transactions are still not legally recognized because it is done electronically. The aim here is to address the legal aspects of electronic contracts; the use of electronic signatures and issues relating to authentication and non-repudiation of these contracts. In effect, we are saying that with a click of a button you are singing a legal document or a legal contract between companies or between persons. We are hoping that by doing this we can speed up the process to remove these exceptions where they exist for transactions such as deeds – you had to do it in person – we would be able to do it electronically; negotiable instruments; trust and statutory declarations. With the electronic transaction bill all of this can now be done electronically.”

The bill was referred to the finance economic development committee.