Central Bank of The Bahamas

The Central Bank of The Bahamas is the reserve bank of The Bahamas, formally established on June 1, 1974, though its lineage traces back to a currency board first set up in 1919. Headquartered in Nassau, it manages monetary policy, supervises the country's financial sector, and issues the Bahamian dollar. The institution passed through three stages: the Board of Commissioners of Currency from 1919, the Bahamas Monetary Authority from 1968, and finally the Central Bank from 1974, a progression driven by the rapid growth of offshore banking, which took the number of licensed banks in the jurisdiction from 37 in 1963 to 323 by 1974 and demanded a stronger regulator. John A. Rolle has served as governor since January 2016. In October 2020 the bank launched the Sand Dollar, a digital version of the Bahamian dollar, making The Bahamas an early adopter of central bank digital currency worldwide.