For months, small business owners and consumers across Belize have fallen victim to a pervasive and costly digital scam: fraudsters send convincing fake screenshots of completed bank transfers to secure goods or services, leveraging the multi-hour or even overnight delays in traditional payment processing to disappear before victims discover the funds never actually arrived. That loophole that scammers have exploited for years is about to be closed, after the Central Bank of Belize announced the full rollout of its new Instant Payments System (IPS), a 24/7 real-time transaction network designed to eliminate processing delays and cut off digital fraud at its source.
Under Belize’s current banking framework, all digital payments are restricted to standard business operating hours and processed in segmented settlement windows. Payments initiated after the midday cutoff do not reach recipient accounts until the following business day, creating a gap between when a payment is marked as “sent” and when it is officially finalized in a user’s account. This gap has been the critical enabler for the screenshot scam, which has cost local merchants thousands of dollars in lost goods across the country.
Central Bank of Belize Governor Kareem Michael explained that the new IPS system eliminates this gap entirely by enabling year-round, 24/7 payment processing that settles transactions in seconds. “What our target is that these transactions will be processed and settled typically in ten seconds or less. It is like sending a WhatsApp message,” Michael said. Unlike the current system that locks payments outside of banking hours, the IPS aligns transaction speed with the actual pace of economic activity, allowing funds to move whenever consumers and businesses need them to.
Beyond cutting out delays to stop fraud, the new platform also addresses longstanding interoperability issues in Belize’s financial sector by connecting all domestic banks, credit unions, and digital wallet providers into a single unified network. This means users will be able to send instant transfers between different financial institutions seamlessly, no longer facing extra wait times or fees for cross-provider transactions. “IPS will connect banks, credit unions, and digital wallets into one shared payment system, allowing money to move easily and instantly between individuals, businesses, regardless of the provider,” Michael added.
To deliver a system that meets global security and functionality standards, the Central Bank partnered with Montran Financial Services, an international payment infrastructure provider with decades of experience implementing real-time and instant payment systems for central banks across nearly 100 countries. Matt Walsh, Montran’s Global Sales Director, noted that the firm’s customizable solution is built to adapt to Belize’s unique financial ecosystem while adhering to the latest international technology standards. “All of our solutions are customizable, very flexible in terms of scaling them and implementing the exact requirements,” Walsh explained. “They’re all of course modern and built on the latest standards and technology. All of our solutions are multicurrency, multi-institutional and multilingual, so that could be accommodated and we have references all over the world.”
For everyday consumers and small business owners, the changes brought by the IPS will be subtle but transformative. The system will support convenient quick payments via QR codes, and most importantly, it delivers immediate confirmation that funds have been successfully deposited to a recipient’s account. This removes the need for merchants to rely on a customer’s screenshot proof of payment, closing the key loophole scammers have relied on for years. When fully operational, the system will bring Belize’s domestic payment infrastructure in line with global modern banking standards, cutting fraud risk and streamlining everyday commercial activity for all users.