A low-income woman walks into a bank branch in Bangalore, India, with the intention of opening a bank account. Mubeena Taj does not speak or read English, but the bank account opening forms are bilingual, so she can manage with her limited Hindi reading. She is a very low-income customer and not one who helps the bank’s profit margins, but the Reserve Bank of India has mandated that all banks make available a No Frills Savings Account which requires zero minimum balance and can be opened with reduced KYC requirements.
Archive
Archive for April, 2010
Banking with Decency – Subtle yet Significant Benefits of Branchless Banking for Women
By: Guest Blogger: April 30th, 2010Mobile money substitutes and the basis of competition
By: Neil Davidson: April 27th, 2010In a recent post, I discussed how demand for different services shapes the success of mobile money deployments, and suggested how these conditions might vary across markets. Today I want to address another crucial determinant of the success of mobile money deployments: the competitive landscape.
Mobile Money for Women – Business case and strategies for using mobile money to close the gender gap for mobile services
By: Guest Blogger: April 22nd, 2010During the summer of 2009 , an extensive research initiative led by mChek was conducted amongst low-income urban and rural residents in Southern India. Its goal was to understand the processes of managing day-to-day costs in a cash-only environment, and investigate the degree to which branchless banking and mobile money could reduce transaction costs and improve livelihoods.
Part 2 of GSMA Handbook on Agent Networks: How to Incentivise a Network of Mobile Money Agents
By: Paul Leishman: April 21st, 2010Today we are publishing the second section of the GSMA handbook on agent networks, entitled “How to Incentivise a Network of Mobile Money Agents”. In this section, we seek to answer a broad question: how can mobile network operators design a set of incentives that encourage agents to become active and productive participants in mobile money distribution?
GSMA Publish Handbook on Agent Networks: How to Build, Incentivise and Manage a Network of Mobile Money Agents
By: Neil Davidson: April 15th, 2010Over the last several years, distribution has proven one of the most difficult pieces of the mobile money business to get right. Even with the accumulated experience of distributing airtime in their markets-often through thousands of retailers-mobile network operators find the process of building a network of mobile money agents, incentivising them appropriately, and managing them to be fraught with difficulties. Indeed, from keeping agents liquid to deterring fraud, operators consistently rank issues related to agent networks as among their most vexing.
Spotlight on Latin America: Colombia
By: Camilo Tellez: April 13th, 2010In spite of its tumultuous political history, President Alvaro Uribe’s democratic security policy and pro-market reforms have resulted in an enhanced investment climate and burgeoning telecom market. Between 2003 and 2008, Colombia grew as never seen before: on average 5.5 percent of GDP each year, and exceeded Brazil, Chile and Mexico. However, unlike its neighbours who used this period of growth for poverty alleviation, Colombia’s poverty levels remained relatively unaffected and is still suffering from crippling income inequality.
Pakistan’s Shared Platform: An Interview with MCB and Fundamo
By: Paul Leishman: April 1st, 2010If you weren’t at Mobile World Congress, you would have missed a very interesting co-presentation from Qasif Shahid, EVP at MCB Bank and Aletha Ling, Executive Director at Fundamo. Qasif and Aletha provided an overview of MCB Mobile, which launched in June 2009 in Pakistan and have since gained some impressive traction, registering over 70,000 customers to date.
Something particularly interesting about the deployment is their decision to launch using a shared platform. To understand more about their approach, I recently had a conversation with Qasif Shahid and Mazahir Ali Sayeed from MCB, and Hannes van Rensburg from Fundamo…
News Tracker
- 1. Vodacom South Africa launches M-Pesa
- 2. Easypaisa introduces donation service
- 3. Yu Cash offer international remittances from US and UK
- 4. Easypaisa introduces international money transfer service
- 5. M-Kesho deposits hit Sh900m
- 6. Tigo Pesa Launches in Tanzania
- 7. Aid groups using cellphones to reach the world's poor
- 8. MTN Cameroon launches mobile money service
- 9. Safaricom's M-Pesa Users Rise to 61% in July From Year Ago
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