Today, we’re publishing a case study that compares Thailand’s True Money with the industry’s best known success story, M-PESA.
Launched in 2005, True Money is now used by 6 million customers. The system processes over USD$900 million in electronic payments and 120 million transactions per year. This doesn’t match the US$3.5 billion in P2P payments M-PESA processes per year, but it does suggest that the model has gained some traction…
Recently I caught up with Azad Delwar Hossain, Head of Financial Services for Grameenphone in Bangladesh. Grameenphone launched a service called ‘BillPay’ in 2006, which allows customers to pay utility bills over the counter, or through an e-wallet. In this interview, Azad provides insights into all aspects of their model, but key three insights emerge that all operators deploying payment offerings should consider:
1. Ensuring right commission spread and loyalty of channel partner
2. How market conditions impact business models
3. The importance of trust
Globe recently announced that the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) has approved their request to use Globe Telecom Sub Distributors as GCASH outlets. Building on Globe’s announcement to launch BanKO in late 2009, this announcement marks the start to what will be a busy 2010 for the team at G-Xchange.
The move to leverage Globe sub-distributors makes sense. For years, GCASH have used pawnshops, rural banks, and Globe Business Centres as cash in/out agents, but haven’t made an aggressive push to use any tier of their airtime distribution network. Globe has pursued this path until now for many reasons, but let’s explore three…
Today we launched the GSMA Mobile Money Deployment Tracker. This new interactive tool has been designed to track the number of live and planned mobile money deployments targeting the unbanked segment, and present relevant data on the models and countries in which they operate.
If you’re already curious to learn more, check out the site, download the Google Earth plug-in, and explore. Here’s a quick review of the features…
In December, we shared an article by Ignacio Mas that described how microfinance is being ‘reframed’. That is, until now microfinance has implied micro ‘funding’ of poor clients with loans, whereas many now recognize that going forward, microsavings will be a critical instrument to meet the financial needs of base of pyramid customers. Ignacio’s December article outlined the four key elements in the discussion underpinning the viability of bringing microsavings offerings to market.
Today, we’re sharing a new article by Bob Christen and Ignacio Mas. This article elaborates on why savings is so important – and suggests how the microsavings model might work in practice. That is, what role each player, including mobile operators, banks and MFIs, might play in developing a system capable of delivering microsavings to all, profitably.
The launch of Pakistan’s ‘easypaisa’ by Telenor and Tameer Microfinance Bank was one of the most exciting deployments of 2009. Targeting the massive unbanked segment and initially supported by a network of 2,000 agents, it’s not surprising that easypaisa is seeing early signs of success. Having been live for less than two months, almost 250,000 customers have used the bill payment or money transfer services initially available and there are positive signs that repeat business will be strong.
I recently caught up with Arif Qayyum from Telenor and Abbas Sikander from Tameer Microfinance Bank to learn more about their approach. Our conversation covered three broad themes:
1. The structure of a mobile operator / bank partnership
2. Approach to agent distribution
3. Their product launch roadmap and plans to drive adoption of an e-wallet
I’m pleased to share an article recently written by Ignacio Mas, Deputy Director, Financial Services for the Poor at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. The Gates Foundation are supporters of the MMU Programme and similarly strong advocates for savings. That is, they see the immense social impact that could be realized by leveraging the consumer uptake of mobile money – and the supporting agent network infrastructure – to improve the savings landscape in developing markets.
Read the article for an analysis of the four key elements that underpin the viability of formal micro-savings offerings: the competition from informal savings mechanisms, the importance of formal trust-building through branding and marketing, the problem of distribution, and the complementarity between savings and payment services.
In August we reported that South Africa was revising their RICA provisions to prohibit mobile network operators from registering new SIM cards without first capturing the customer’s identity. We’re now seeing the first signs of how this implementation of mandatory SIM registration will impact the mobile market. MTN’s regulatory affairs executive, Zolisa Masiza, has confirmed that since August 1, there has been a 30% reduction in the sale of SIM cards. The issue of mandatory SIM registration will undoubtedly have some impact on the development of mobile money – not just in South Africa, but in markets around the world. In theory, identifying millions of mobile subscribers could aid in the deployment of mobile money…
I recently had a conversation with Ben Farren, Director of Splash Mobile Money Ltd., to learn how Sierra Leone’s first mobile money deployment has been progressing since it launched 10 weeks ago. Splash is privately held and their model isn’t ‘led’ by a bank or a mobile operator. In launching the service Ben has developed a new brand, independent distribution network and partnerships with mobile operators.
Splash has agreements with the three largest MNOs which enable customers from these networks – representing about 90% of the market – to use the service. Currently focused on domestic money transfer, Splash enables customers to send money to anyone – regardless of which mobile network they use. Registration takes place at Splash agents or during one of the company’s planned registration campaigns.
Click to hear more about their model and progress.
Whenever a mobile money deployment announces customer numbers, the first question people typically ask is ‘yes, but how many of those customers are active’? It’s a fair question. Active user rates vary across deployments and have an enormous impact on profitability. Analysis of different markets has revealed three broad challenges that deployments face when it comes to active rates. The first two challenges involve persuading customers to perform an acceptable number of transactions. If these challenges aren’t quickly and adequately addressed, they spawn a third, equally troublesome challenge: out of practice, unsatisfied agents.
So how are deployments addressing these challenges?
