Baton Rouge-based community currency Moxey is partnering with Citizens Bank and Trust on a cross promotional effort that will help raise awareness among Citizens’ small business customers about Moxey and, presumably, help drive the members of the Moxey network to Citizens when they need a bank.
“As far as I know, this is the first partnership of its kind in the U.S. between a community currency and a traditional bank,” Moxey founder Charlie Davis says. “It really speaks to the growing acceptance and recognition of community currencies.”
Davis launched Moxey in 2017, and its growth has been slow but steady. The network currently has around 3,500 mostly Louisiana members, with a small presence in Mississippi, Alabama and Tennessee.
Earlier this year, Moxey closed on a $650,000 round of seed capital, which funded the development of a new app that has made Moxey easier to use and also helped fuel recent growth, Davis says.
Community currencies like Moxey are different from crypto currencies such as Bitcoin. The latter is a virtual or digital currency that is encrypted using a special technology.
A community currency, though also virtual, is not intended to compete with U.S currency, but rather to supplement it through a membership network system rooted in the concept of a barter economy.
Members that accept Moxey dollars for their goods or services are then able to spend their Moxey money with other members of the network, which both frees up cash flow and creates a built-in customer base.
Moxey also does not compete with traditional banks but can complement them, which is why the Plaquemine-based Citizens is partnering with it on the promotion.
“Citizens Bank and Trust feels that Moxey offers another tool for local businesses that is complementary with local banking,” Citizens manager Roland Gaudet says in a statement. “We look forward to the partnership with Moxey and continuing to increase our presence in West Baton Rouge, Pointe Coupee and Iberville parishes.”
View the entire article published by BR Business Review HERE.