Information About Bahoudii's Economy

The Minister of Finance has been instrumental in the development of the Kingdoms cashless transaction system.  Building the economic framework of the Kingdom around the latest technologies allows commerce to flow simply and easily in an almost "frictionless" way.

All Kingdom-employed or stipend citizens are paid weekly on Saturday at 0000 HRS GMT-6 [NO Daylight Savings Time] by an EFT draft to each citizen's Individual account.

The Account number is the citizen's DMIN (Identification Number), and the account is accessed by the citizen with a barcode (on his National ID) and entry of a PIN code and/or finger imaging technology. All checkout counters will possess thumb readers. The purchaser simply places their thumb on the thumb print reader which in turn recognizes the print. Therefore, no PIN is needed.

The finger image process includes electronic capture of both thumb prints and a photograph of the account holder. Approximately 12 accounts can be processed hourly per workstation. The system has 99% or better accuracy rates.

The system was designed by SAGEM-MORPHO, Inc., a major European systems integrator based in Paris, France. They provide hardware, software, application support, systems training, maintenance, and all other services needed to successfully operate the Image System.

Payments to Businesses are handled via an automated clearing house (ACH) over the BahoudiiNet Fiber network and are processed on a batch settlement basis. This is due to close of business (COB) time differences in the marketplace.

Say you have one store whose COB is 6:00, another with a COB of 9:00 and your central host uses a COB of 8:00. Every transaction for the 6:00 one would settle, but everything from 8:00 to 9:00 on the second store's settlement would not. With a central ACH you process everything from COB to COB in one big batch settlement to all the individual accounts. Every transaction after the ACH's COB settles in the next batch cycle and so on.

If the country grows, and we have more than one processor, there are other settlement issues.

Say Processor A acquires a transaction from one of Processor B's stores (basically the cardholder's account is on Processor A's host system) then that store will not get settled for two days. Processor A would settle through the ACH to Processor B in the big daily batch. Processor B settles to his retailer (store) the following day in the big batch.

This provides a way for a large system with many processors to work everything out and still allow for an audit trail. The audit trails is of critical importance. When transactions go wrong you have to be able to pinpoint where they went wrong.

Additionally, the "Audit Trail" must provide the ability for the Ministry of Finance and/or Ministry of Security to track everything if necessary. The "banking" system must be flawless to instill confidence in the country. If the economic system doesn't work, people won't feel comfortable doing business in the Kingdom. There is also the desire to be able to detect fraud and stop the person immediately.

Tourists will transfer funds electronically into their personal Kingdom accounts upon arrival or through the Kingdom Ministry of Finance Bureau of the Treasury ATM location(s). Tourist payments to businesses are handled in the same manner as citizen payments.

No Credit Cards are accepted by merchants. Credit card transactions may only be performed by Kingdom Ministry of Finance Bureau of Management & Budget Department of Commerce Banking Division location(s) which are tied into a regional ACH to interact with the other VISA and MC processors.

By establishing a system that follows the lines of the conventional EFT/EBT environment as it is now practiced in most areas, we can utilize off-the-shelf equipment and software.