TXTBANKNG THE UNBANKED
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Jul 27, 2009, 3:55:31 PM7/27/09
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http://spectregroup.wordpress.com/2009/07/10/sms-banking-in-kenya/
SMS BANKING IN AFRICA
http://mmublog.org/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tOuflAkAvMU
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TNrDv4PQdCc
ONE CELL PHONE PER CHILD (cont.)
http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/ghana/090527/africa-looks-cell-phone-banking
Millions to enter banking system through mobile phone system.
BY Drew Hinshaw / May 28, 2009
Accra, Ghana — Most working people here do not exist, at least not in
the records of any trustworthy bank: The taxi drivers stash their
salaries beneath floor mats and the market women tie their earnings up
in the waistlines of their wrapper-skirts. They are the “un-banked” —
potential customers but for now invisible, lost among the 80 percent
of Africans who do their banking in tin cans and fanny packs. They do
not keep the sort of accounts one can present to a loan officer.
Africa's economy of cash handovers and stowed-away savings has long
been a hindrance to the continent's economic growth, as well as a
cause and excuse to deny credit to its poor. But now, at a time when
10 million Ghanaians own a phone, the world's banks, cell phone
networks and aid agencies are coming here to flip one thing into the
other — to tweak a few features on a sim card, circumvent some
regulations, and voila: The ordinary pre-paid cell phone becomes
something not unlike a checking account — a way to text money from
person to person throughout this intricate economy. “It's the next big
gold rush,” said Michael Amankwah, CEO of CoreNet, a Ghanaian ATM
manufacturer whose business, the chief executive freely admits, “is
going to take a big hit,” when cell phone banking takes hold. “It's
the future of transactions and payments here.”
Already, telecom companies in Kenya and South Africa are shuffling
millions of dollars in rands and shillings a day, as customers text
along their excess income — perhaps to help an ailing but faraway
relative buy medicine, or to pay workers harvesting a distant farm. In
March, the continent's largest cell phone network, MTN, announced
plans to bring their Mobile Money service to 21 nations — they’ll even
throw in an MTN-branded debt card. In Cote d'Ivoire, French telecom
giant Orange is hammering out a similar program, and in eight East
African nations, including the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the
British firm Monitise, which is not a telecoms firm, will do the same.
“This is a way to include quite a number of people who are outside the
reach of the financial system,” said David Andah, executive secretary
of Ghana’s Microfinance Institutions Network. “I'm talking about that
woman on the beach selling fish. People who are not linked up at all.”
Analysts expect similar programs to take off in most African countries
within a year. They forecast that several hundred million of Africa's
least connected traders, farmers and laborers will be brought into the
banking system within three to five years. For the small towns and
unreachable villages that have sent generations of talented youths and
natural resources to the booming cities, this is an especially big
deal. The technology should ease the path of remittances home, and
make it easier for agriculturalists to operate multiple, far-apart
farms. Those lucky enough to procure a micro-loan will be able to
receive payments without traveling for hours. Those hopeful enough to
apply for a loan will be able to bring to the counter some evidence of
their income, if only in text messages. And in the capitals of each
new country where mobile banking takes off, governments face the
enticing option of taxing millions more petty purchases a day, in all
the impractical corners where bureaucrats seldom go. “As the cash-less
society grows, the consequences are going to be pretty heavy,” said
Ghana Manager Kofi Kufuor, of Afric Xpress, a company that helps
Ghanaians pay their bills and transfer money via text messages. “This
is a lot of money we are talking about.” And a lot of people: “You
have 6.1 billion people on this planet, out of which only one and
half, two billion have an account,” said Prateek Shrivastava, head
international strategist for Monitise. “Billions are going to be
interested.”
Yet, out of those billions of people — whose infinitesimal
transactions were once so extraneous to the world’s financial
institutions — nobody stands to benefit quite like Africa's
increasingly powerful telecom companies, the conglomerates who built
this continent's cellular towers and enable its calls. “These guys are
going to be more powerful than Google, more powerful than Microsoft,
within the locality in which they operate,” Amankwah said. “Already,
telecoms move more money than the banks. And they have control over
the channels — it's their sim card. You're using their network. “These
guys are going to be kings.”
BANK THE POOR
http://www.nextbillion.net/blog/2007/08/30/mobile-plus-and-fe-mobile-enter-the-m-banking-and-remittances-ph
Mobile Plus and FE-Mobile enter the M-Banking and Remittances
Phenomenon
BY Ana Escalante / August 30, 2007
Mobile banking seems to be the new way to "bank the poor." There are a
growing number of companies working with these new technologies, some
of which have been featured on NextBillion in the past. Schemes vary
from those operating with standard in-country banking transactions to
those with foreign remittances. Mobile banking is taking off because
it is convenient, fast, simple, and secure - money can be transmitted
almost instantly. That, and many people in developing countries now
own or have access to a phone. Recently, NextBillion got an e-mail
from Mobile Plus and FE-Mobile telling us about their new venture:
enabling low-value payments and remittances through mobile phones.
Mobile Plus is a small group of entrepreneurs that have built secure
payment mechanisms and low value cross border mechanisms for
developing countries. According to their press release:
Mobile Plus Ltd provides low-cost international call credit and
remittance services using a dual purpose card. FE Mobile Ltd provides
the SecureLink™ mobile security platform...Consumers will purchase pre-
paid vouchers in denominations £20, £50 and £100 and transmit the
voucher number to the recipient who has a choice: either to make low
cost calls or to redeem the voucher (less a small fixed service
charge) for cash at a local participating outlet.
Mobile Plus and FE Mobile are not the first companies to provide these
types of services, but I still think the whole idea behind m-banking
is very interesting. I recently blogged about a similar venture from
ISI, and Rob also blogged about ARYTY earlier this year - both
companies provide similar services. I think it’s excellent that these
services are becoming available to the people living in the BOP,
because it gives them access to financial services and the ability to
receive money from relatives abroad without the costly punitive fees
and charges of incumbent remittance providers.
Although there is no one "global" company for m-banking, those I have
found so far cover either one country, a small group of countries or a
specific region- such as the case of ARYTY, G-Cash and Smart Money in
the Philippines; WIZZIT and MTN Mobile Money in South Africa; M-Pesa
in Kenya; Celpay in Zambia and the Democratic Republic of Congo.
FE-MOBILE
http://www.fe-mobile.com/news.html#
CELPAY
http://www.celpay.com/
MTN
http://www.mtnbanking.co.za/site/MTNBanking/index2.html
WIZZIT
http://www.wizzit.co.za/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2SKhCYoF0Lg
http://www.nextbillion.net/archive/activitycapsule/wizzit
"WIZZIT is a cellphone-based banking facility whose target market is
the estimated 16 million unbanked or underbanked South Africans -
about 60 percent of the country's population. Unlike its competitors
(FNB and MTN), WIZZIT does not require users to have a bank account
and is compatible with early generation cell phones popular in low-
income communities. The facility even works with customers who use pay-
as-you-go cellphones - another distinction. In addition to being able
to conduct cellphone-to-cellphone transactions, WIZZIT account holders
are issued Maestro debit cards that can be used at any ATM or
retailer. WIZZIT charges per-transaction fees that range from 99c (USD
0.15) to R4.99 (USD 0.78) and does not charge a monthly fee nor
require a minimum balance. There are no transaction limitations - the
service is purely pay-as-you-go. WIZZIT employs over 800 "Wizz Kids" -
typically unemployed university graduates from low-income communities
- to promote the product and help unbanked customers open accounts."
M-PESA
www.safaricom.co.ke/index.php?id=745
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NSdBDZy982o
SMS BANKING IN KENYA (cont.)
[ From the archive, originally posted to spectre Mar 30, 2007 ]
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jUjBnxV7V8A
http://www.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,,2037930,00.html
Kenya sets world first with money transfers by mobile
BY Xan Rice in Nairobi / March 20, 2007
The ping of a text message has never sounded so sweet. In what is
being touted as a world first, Kenya's biggest mobile operator is
allowing subscribers to send cash to other phone users by SMS. Known
as M-Pesa, or mobile money, the service is expected to revolutionise
banking in a country where more than 80% of people are excluded from
the formal financial sector. Apart from transferring cash - a service
much in demand among urban Kenyans supporting relatives in rural areas
- customers of the Safaricom network will be able to keep up to 50,000
shillings (£370) in a "virtual account" on their handsets.
Developed by Vodafone, which holds a 35% share in Safaricom, M-Pesa
was formally launched in Kenya two weeks ago. More than 10,000 people
have signed up for the service, with around 8m shillings transferred
so far, mostly in tiny denominations. Safaricom's executives are
confident that growth will be strong in Kenya, and later across
Africa. "We are effectively giving people ATM cards without them ever
having to open a real bank account," said Michael Joseph, chief
executive of Safaricom, who called the money transfer concept the
"next big thing" in mobile telephony.
M-Pesa's is simple. There is no need for a new handset or SIM card. To
send money you hand over the cash to a registered agent - typically a
retailer - who credits your virtual account. You then send between 100
shillings (74p) and 35,000 shillings (£259) via text message to the
desired recipient - even someone on a different mobile network - who
cashes it at an agent by entering a secret code and showing ID. A
commission of up to 170 shillings (£1.25) is paid by the recipient but
it compares favourably with fees levied by the major banks, whose
services are too expensive for most of the population.
Mobile phone growth in Kenya, as in most of Africa, has been
remarkable, even among the rural poor. In June 1999 Kenya had 15,000
mobile subscribers. Today it has nearly 8 million out of a population
of 35 million, and the two operators' networks are as extensive as the
access to banks is limited. Safaricom says it is not so much competing
with financial services companies as filling a void. In time, M-Pesa
will allow people to borrow and repay money, and make purchases.
Companies will be able to pay salaries directly into workers' phones -
something that has already attracted the interest of larger employers,
such as the tea companies, whose workers often have to be paid in cash
as they do not have bank accounts.
There are concerns about security, but Safaricom insists that even if
someone's phone is stolen the PIN system prevents unauthorised
withdrawals. Mr Joseph said the only danger is sending cash to the
wrong mobile number and the recipient redeeming it straight away. The
project is being watched closely by mobile operators around the world
as a way of targeting the multibillion pound international cash
transfer industry long dominated by companies such as Western Union
and Moneygram. Remittances sent from nearly 200 million migrant
workers to developing countries totalled £102bn last year, according
to the World Bank. The GSM Association, which represents more than 700
mobile operators worldwide, believes this could quadruple by 2012 if
transfers by SMS become the norm. Vodafone has entered a partnership
with Citigroup that would soon allow Kenyans in the UK to send money
home via text message. The charge for sending £50 is expected to be
about £3, less than a third of what some traditional services charge.
{The following correction appeared in the Guardian's Corrections and
clarifications column, Saturday March 31 2007 : The claim in the
article above was wrong. The mobile banking system may be the first in
Africa but two companies, Globe Telecom and Smart Communications, have
been operating money transfers in the Philippines since around 2005.}
PHILIPPINES : ARYTY
https://www.aryty.com/Default1.aspx
G-CASH
http://gcash.globe.com.ph/sectionpagearticle.aspx?secid=27&id=52
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IMuWM6bSN7U
http://gcash.globe.com.ph/
"This video profiles the use of G-Cash in Cantilan, a Filipino farming
and fishing community 5 hours away from the nearest operational
airport. The video features interviews with customers (there are 8,900
in Cantilan) and agents from a few of the 60+ small businesses,
including pharmacies, bakeries, restaurants, who accept G-Cash as a
payment method."
GCASH, Globe’s flagship M-Commerce service, was born from a simple
goal of transforming a mobile phone into a wallet. With its launch in
October 2004, GCASH has effectively given Globe and TM subscribers
access to a cashless and cardless method of facilitating money
remittance, donations, loan settlement, disbursement of salaries or
commissions, and payment of bills, products and services, with just a
text message. GCASH requires only a mobile phone and a one-time
registration, with a minimal charge of P1.00 per GCASH transaction.
GCASH dramatically expands the menu of mobile commerce transactions,
and has provided the low income economic class and overseas workers
access to the relevant services below:
Domestic and International Remittances : Sending of money via GCASH as
supported by a wide cash-handling network, including leading local and
international remittance companies backed by reputable settlement
banks
Micro-Payments : Payments for purchases from the growing list of
merchant partners, including essentials such as government taxes,
medicines, boat fares, food, mobile prepaid credits (load), and
schools and office supplies
Micro-Credit Payments : Allows disbursement of loan principals and
payment of loan interest and amortization payments to lower income
consumers with limited access to banks
Bills & Tuition Fee Payments : Allows payment of bills of various
utility companies, internet service providers, insurance companies, as
wella s schools and universities
Donations : Provides a quick and safe processing of GCASH donations to
different institutions
SMART MONEY
http://smart.com.ph/corporate/about/technology/MCommerce.htm
http://smart.com.ph/corporate/services/Remittance.htm
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I30fclyKdQc
RBAP (Rural Bankers Association of the Philippines)
http://www.rbap.org/home/
http://www.rbapmabs.org/home/
http://www3.rbapmabs.org/
http://www.mobilephonebanking.rbap.org/
http://www.microcapital.org/microcapital-story-globe-telecom-philippines-joins-with-microfinance-providers-in-the-rural-bankers-association-of-the-philippines-rbap-to-supply-mobile-banking-services-to-the-rural-poor/
Globe Telecom Philippines Joins with Microfinance Providers in the
Rural Bankers Association of the Philippines (RBAP) to Supply Mobile
Banking Services to the Rural Poor
BY Brett Rudder / September 16, 2008
"The Rural Bankers Association of the Philippines (RBAP) and Globe
Telecom Inc, the Philippines’ second largest telecommunications
provider, have partnered to extend mobile banking services to rural
banks, allowing their customers to conduct transactions using mobile
phones. The effort brings the mobile banking service G-cash, managed
by Globe Telecom’s subsidiary G-Xchange Inc, to 375 participating
branch locations. Microfinance institutions under this program become
“cash in” and “cash out” outlets that are accredited to convert actual
money into electronic money and vice versa.
RBAP is a consortium organization of approximately 700 rural banks in
the Philippines. Its Microenterprise Access to Banking Services (MABS)
assists its members in increasing access to banking services for the
microenterprise sector. The US Agency for International Development
has supported MABS since 1998. The central bank of the Philippines
Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) has approved G-cash and expects the
market for these services to grow by at least 20 percent over the next
year. RBAP reports that the gross loan portfolio of MABS microfinance
institutions is equivalent to USD 41.1 million and that their savings
deposits total USD 36.6 million."
MONGOLIA
http://www.xacbank.mn/
http://www.xacbank.mn/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=112%3Akiva2009&catid=52%3Anews&Itemid=55&lang=en
"XacBank, Mongolia’s largest microfinance institution recently
launched its partnership with Kiva, the world’s first person-to-person
micro-lending website. XacBank’s clients are now featured on Kiva.org,
and individual lenders from around the world can make small loans of
$25 over the Internet to micro entrepreneurs in Mongolia. These small
loans help businesses such as butcher shops, furniture stores and
beauty salons to succeed while enabling hardworking Mongolians to
provide food and education for their families."
ATMSend
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122642261329117667.html
Bank ATMs soon may be used for sending cash person-to-person
BY Gail Liberman and Alan Lavine / 11.11.2008
If you're without a bank account, you soon could have a low-cost way
of sending cash to others -- using your cell phone and a bank ATM.
Amid criticism that banks aren't doing enough to attract those who
lack bank accounts, a Charlotte-based company, Privier Inc., is
courting financial institutions to provide this service. Privier's
patented "ATMSend" would let the so-called un-banked transfer cash
without requiring the sender or recipient to have a bank ATM card or
bank account. The system would use bank ATMs that permit cash
deposits, said Charles Polanco, chief executive of Privier.
Western Union Co. in Englewood, Colo., and MoneyGram International, in
Minneapolis, currently dominate the money transfer business. Combined,
the two companies have 22% of the market, according to a report in
June by Marketdata, a Tampa, Fla. market research publisher. However,
new competition is rapidly emerging from Visa, MasterCard, Wal-Mart --
and the latest mobile technology allowing for financial transactions
using cell phones.
Privier would equip screens of participating bank ATMs with icons
reading "Send Cash" and "Pickup Cash." A cash sender and recipient
would press appropriate buttons to automatically activate the ATM for
an "ATMSend" transaction, Polanco said. Each bank would determine
limits regarding how much cash could be transferred. The sender first
would have to register a cell phone through a participating bank
either online or via telephone, entering a name, address, birth date,
Social Security number and cell phone number. Privier would verify the
user's identity and check information against the Office of Foreign
Assets Control list of terrorists.
At a participating bank ATM, the sender could then click "Send Cash"
and enter the cell phone number. A 10-digit withdrawal number
automatically would be text-messaged to the cell phone number
provided. The sender could follow prompts at the ATM to enter cash
into the machine and provide the recipient with the authorization code
along with the amount sent. With that information, the recipient could
obtain the cash at an ATM within the participating bank's network. All
funds must be picked up at once, and if funds go unclaimed, senders
would be notified to pick up the funds at an ATM location after 30
days.
BANK A BILLION
http://www.bankabillion.org/
https://www.obopay.com/corporate/press_releases/Grameen_Solutions_Obopay.shtml
'The Grameen-Obopay Bank A Billion Initiative' / August 05, 2008
Obopay, Inc., the pioneering service provider for payments via mobile
phones, and Grameen Solutions, the company globally recognized for
promoting economic and social development through information and
communications technology, today announced a unique, first-of-its-kind
alliance to use mobile technology to deliver banking services to a
billion of the world’s poorest people by 2018. The Grameen-Obopay Bank
A Billion Initiative will provide access to affordable financial
services, including cross-border remittances, money transfer,
payments, savings and credit accounts. By empowering life and work
endeavors with mobile technology that is ubiquitous even in the most
impoverished and remote corners of the world, Grameen-Obopay is
bringing the full power of banking to those who need it most. "I was
inspired to found Obopay when I was volunteering in Africa and saw
that while people in remote corners of the world often lacked access
to the most basic financial services, they almost all had mobile
phones,” explained Ms. Carol Realini, CEO of Obopay. “We are thrilled
to embark on a partnership with Grameen Solutions, and look forward to
working with them to bring truly powerful mobile banking services to
people everywhere."
With more than 3 billion connections to GSM mobile communications
networks currently active globally and emerging markets responsible
for 85 percent of new connections today1, mobile technology can
effectively deliver financial services to billions of underserved
people on every continent. Until now, even the most basic financial
services have been unavailable to the world’s poor because they are
physically inaccessible and/or far too expensive to be practical.
Using mobile technology to deliver banking services overcomes
previously limiting restrictions of space and time by using existing
infrastructure to give even the most underprivileged access to
financial services.
Grameen Solutions’ CEO Mr. Kazi Islam explained, "We carefully
evaluated globally available mobile money service providers with a
view to identifying a partner that fits with our vision and mission.
Obopay is clearly that partner, and we look forward to maximizing the
global potential of mobile financial services with them. By using a
technology that is already pervasive — the mobile phone — we will
clearly be able to have a dramatic impact on global poverty."
Working initially in Mumbai, India and in Bangladesh, The Grameen-
Obopay Bank A Billion Initiative will begin delivering services in
October, 2008. Commenting on the association, Mr. Aditya Menon,
Executive Director and CTO, Obopay India, said, "Obopay’s partnership
with Grameen Solutions is a clear and powerful validation of Obopay’s
ability to have a dramatic and transformational global impact on
personal finance." Grameen was founded by Professor Muhammad Yunus,
the founding father of the microfinance movement and recipient of the
2006 Nobel Peace Prize. Prof. Yunus commented that, "Mobile based
financial services will bring more power to poor people. I'm excited
about the partnership that Grameen Solutions and Obopay have created."
SMS BANKING IN AFRICA
http://mmublog.org/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tOuflAkAvMU
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TNrDv4PQdCc
ONE CELL PHONE PER CHILD (cont.)
http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/ghana/090527/africa-looks-cell-phone-banking
Millions to enter banking system through mobile phone system.
BY Drew Hinshaw / May 28, 2009
Accra, Ghana — Most working people here do not exist, at least not in
the records of any trustworthy bank: The taxi drivers stash their
salaries beneath floor mats and the market women tie their earnings up
in the waistlines of their wrapper-skirts. They are the “un-banked” —
potential customers but for now invisible, lost among the 80 percent
of Africans who do their banking in tin cans and fanny packs. They do
not keep the sort of accounts one can present to a loan officer.
Africa's economy of cash handovers and stowed-away savings has long
been a hindrance to the continent's economic growth, as well as a
cause and excuse to deny credit to its poor. But now, at a time when
10 million Ghanaians own a phone, the world's banks, cell phone
networks and aid agencies are coming here to flip one thing into the
other — to tweak a few features on a sim card, circumvent some
regulations, and voila: The ordinary pre-paid cell phone becomes
something not unlike a checking account — a way to text money from
person to person throughout this intricate economy. “It's the next big
gold rush,” said Michael Amankwah, CEO of CoreNet, a Ghanaian ATM
manufacturer whose business, the chief executive freely admits, “is
going to take a big hit,” when cell phone banking takes hold. “It's
the future of transactions and payments here.”
Already, telecom companies in Kenya and South Africa are shuffling
millions of dollars in rands and shillings a day, as customers text
along their excess income — perhaps to help an ailing but faraway
relative buy medicine, or to pay workers harvesting a distant farm. In
March, the continent's largest cell phone network, MTN, announced
plans to bring their Mobile Money service to 21 nations — they’ll even
throw in an MTN-branded debt card. In Cote d'Ivoire, French telecom
giant Orange is hammering out a similar program, and in eight East
African nations, including the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the
British firm Monitise, which is not a telecoms firm, will do the same.
“This is a way to include quite a number of people who are outside the
reach of the financial system,” said David Andah, executive secretary
of Ghana’s Microfinance Institutions Network. “I'm talking about that
woman on the beach selling fish. People who are not linked up at all.”
Analysts expect similar programs to take off in most African countries
within a year. They forecast that several hundred million of Africa's
least connected traders, farmers and laborers will be brought into the
banking system within three to five years. For the small towns and
unreachable villages that have sent generations of talented youths and
natural resources to the booming cities, this is an especially big
deal. The technology should ease the path of remittances home, and
make it easier for agriculturalists to operate multiple, far-apart
farms. Those lucky enough to procure a micro-loan will be able to
receive payments without traveling for hours. Those hopeful enough to
apply for a loan will be able to bring to the counter some evidence of
their income, if only in text messages. And in the capitals of each
new country where mobile banking takes off, governments face the
enticing option of taxing millions more petty purchases a day, in all
the impractical corners where bureaucrats seldom go. “As the cash-less
society grows, the consequences are going to be pretty heavy,” said
Ghana Manager Kofi Kufuor, of Afric Xpress, a company that helps
Ghanaians pay their bills and transfer money via text messages. “This
is a lot of money we are talking about.” And a lot of people: “You
have 6.1 billion people on this planet, out of which only one and
half, two billion have an account,” said Prateek Shrivastava, head
international strategist for Monitise. “Billions are going to be
interested.”
Yet, out of those billions of people — whose infinitesimal
transactions were once so extraneous to the world’s financial
institutions — nobody stands to benefit quite like Africa's
increasingly powerful telecom companies, the conglomerates who built
this continent's cellular towers and enable its calls. “These guys are
going to be more powerful than Google, more powerful than Microsoft,
within the locality in which they operate,” Amankwah said. “Already,
telecoms move more money than the banks. And they have control over
the channels — it's their sim card. You're using their network. “These
guys are going to be kings.”
BANK THE POOR
http://www.nextbillion.net/blog/2007/08/30/mobile-plus-and-fe-mobile-enter-the-m-banking-and-remittances-ph
Mobile Plus and FE-Mobile enter the M-Banking and Remittances
Phenomenon
BY Ana Escalante / August 30, 2007
Mobile banking seems to be the new way to "bank the poor." There are a
growing number of companies working with these new technologies, some
of which have been featured on NextBillion in the past. Schemes vary
from those operating with standard in-country banking transactions to
those with foreign remittances. Mobile banking is taking off because
it is convenient, fast, simple, and secure - money can be transmitted
almost instantly. That, and many people in developing countries now
own or have access to a phone. Recently, NextBillion got an e-mail
from Mobile Plus and FE-Mobile telling us about their new venture:
enabling low-value payments and remittances through mobile phones.
Mobile Plus is a small group of entrepreneurs that have built secure
payment mechanisms and low value cross border mechanisms for
developing countries. According to their press release:
Mobile Plus Ltd provides low-cost international call credit and
remittance services using a dual purpose card. FE Mobile Ltd provides
the SecureLink™ mobile security platform...Consumers will purchase pre-
paid vouchers in denominations £20, £50 and £100 and transmit the
voucher number to the recipient who has a choice: either to make low
cost calls or to redeem the voucher (less a small fixed service
charge) for cash at a local participating outlet.
Mobile Plus and FE Mobile are not the first companies to provide these
types of services, but I still think the whole idea behind m-banking
is very interesting. I recently blogged about a similar venture from
ISI, and Rob also blogged about ARYTY earlier this year - both
companies provide similar services. I think it’s excellent that these
services are becoming available to the people living in the BOP,
because it gives them access to financial services and the ability to
receive money from relatives abroad without the costly punitive fees
and charges of incumbent remittance providers.
Although there is no one "global" company for m-banking, those I have
found so far cover either one country, a small group of countries or a
specific region- such as the case of ARYTY, G-Cash and Smart Money in
the Philippines; WIZZIT and MTN Mobile Money in South Africa; M-Pesa
in Kenya; Celpay in Zambia and the Democratic Republic of Congo.
FE-MOBILE
http://www.fe-mobile.com/news.html#
CELPAY
http://www.celpay.com/
MTN
http://www.mtnbanking.co.za/site/MTNBanking/index2.html
WIZZIT
http://www.wizzit.co.za/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2SKhCYoF0Lg
http://www.nextbillion.net/archive/activitycapsule/wizzit
"WIZZIT is a cellphone-based banking facility whose target market is
the estimated 16 million unbanked or underbanked South Africans -
about 60 percent of the country's population. Unlike its competitors
(FNB and MTN), WIZZIT does not require users to have a bank account
and is compatible with early generation cell phones popular in low-
income communities. The facility even works with customers who use pay-
as-you-go cellphones - another distinction. In addition to being able
to conduct cellphone-to-cellphone transactions, WIZZIT account holders
are issued Maestro debit cards that can be used at any ATM or
retailer. WIZZIT charges per-transaction fees that range from 99c (USD
0.15) to R4.99 (USD 0.78) and does not charge a monthly fee nor
require a minimum balance. There are no transaction limitations - the
service is purely pay-as-you-go. WIZZIT employs over 800 "Wizz Kids" -
typically unemployed university graduates from low-income communities
- to promote the product and help unbanked customers open accounts."
M-PESA
www.safaricom.co.ke/index.php?id=745
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NSdBDZy982o
SMS BANKING IN KENYA (cont.)
[ From the archive, originally posted to spectre Mar 30, 2007 ]
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jUjBnxV7V8A
http://www.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,,2037930,00.html
Kenya sets world first with money transfers by mobile
BY Xan Rice in Nairobi / March 20, 2007
The ping of a text message has never sounded so sweet. In what is
being touted as a world first, Kenya's biggest mobile operator is
allowing subscribers to send cash to other phone users by SMS. Known
as M-Pesa, or mobile money, the service is expected to revolutionise
banking in a country where more than 80% of people are excluded from
the formal financial sector. Apart from transferring cash - a service
much in demand among urban Kenyans supporting relatives in rural areas
- customers of the Safaricom network will be able to keep up to 50,000
shillings (£370) in a "virtual account" on their handsets.
Developed by Vodafone, which holds a 35% share in Safaricom, M-Pesa
was formally launched in Kenya two weeks ago. More than 10,000 people
have signed up for the service, with around 8m shillings transferred
so far, mostly in tiny denominations. Safaricom's executives are
confident that growth will be strong in Kenya, and later across
Africa. "We are effectively giving people ATM cards without them ever
having to open a real bank account," said Michael Joseph, chief
executive of Safaricom, who called the money transfer concept the
"next big thing" in mobile telephony.
M-Pesa's is simple. There is no need for a new handset or SIM card. To
send money you hand over the cash to a registered agent - typically a
retailer - who credits your virtual account. You then send between 100
shillings (74p) and 35,000 shillings (£259) via text message to the
desired recipient - even someone on a different mobile network - who
cashes it at an agent by entering a secret code and showing ID. A
commission of up to 170 shillings (£1.25) is paid by the recipient but
it compares favourably with fees levied by the major banks, whose
services are too expensive for most of the population.
Mobile phone growth in Kenya, as in most of Africa, has been
remarkable, even among the rural poor. In June 1999 Kenya had 15,000
mobile subscribers. Today it has nearly 8 million out of a population
of 35 million, and the two operators' networks are as extensive as the
access to banks is limited. Safaricom says it is not so much competing
with financial services companies as filling a void. In time, M-Pesa
will allow people to borrow and repay money, and make purchases.
Companies will be able to pay salaries directly into workers' phones -
something that has already attracted the interest of larger employers,
such as the tea companies, whose workers often have to be paid in cash
as they do not have bank accounts.
There are concerns about security, but Safaricom insists that even if
someone's phone is stolen the PIN system prevents unauthorised
withdrawals. Mr Joseph said the only danger is sending cash to the
wrong mobile number and the recipient redeeming it straight away. The
project is being watched closely by mobile operators around the world
as a way of targeting the multibillion pound international cash
transfer industry long dominated by companies such as Western Union
and Moneygram. Remittances sent from nearly 200 million migrant
workers to developing countries totalled £102bn last year, according
to the World Bank. The GSM Association, which represents more than 700
mobile operators worldwide, believes this could quadruple by 2012 if
transfers by SMS become the norm. Vodafone has entered a partnership
with Citigroup that would soon allow Kenyans in the UK to send money
home via text message. The charge for sending £50 is expected to be
about £3, less than a third of what some traditional services charge.
{The following correction appeared in the Guardian's Corrections and
clarifications column, Saturday March 31 2007 : The claim in the
article above was wrong. The mobile banking system may be the first in
Africa but two companies, Globe Telecom and Smart Communications, have
been operating money transfers in the Philippines since around 2005.}
PHILIPPINES : ARYTY
https://www.aryty.com/Default1.aspx
G-CASH
http://gcash.globe.com.ph/sectionpagearticle.aspx?secid=27&id=52
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IMuWM6bSN7U
http://gcash.globe.com.ph/
"This video profiles the use of G-Cash in Cantilan, a Filipino farming
and fishing community 5 hours away from the nearest operational
airport. The video features interviews with customers (there are 8,900
in Cantilan) and agents from a few of the 60+ small businesses,
including pharmacies, bakeries, restaurants, who accept G-Cash as a
payment method."
GCASH, Globe’s flagship M-Commerce service, was born from a simple
goal of transforming a mobile phone into a wallet. With its launch in
October 2004, GCASH has effectively given Globe and TM subscribers
access to a cashless and cardless method of facilitating money
remittance, donations, loan settlement, disbursement of salaries or
commissions, and payment of bills, products and services, with just a
text message. GCASH requires only a mobile phone and a one-time
registration, with a minimal charge of P1.00 per GCASH transaction.
GCASH dramatically expands the menu of mobile commerce transactions,
and has provided the low income economic class and overseas workers
access to the relevant services below:
Domestic and International Remittances : Sending of money via GCASH as
supported by a wide cash-handling network, including leading local and
international remittance companies backed by reputable settlement
banks
Micro-Payments : Payments for purchases from the growing list of
merchant partners, including essentials such as government taxes,
medicines, boat fares, food, mobile prepaid credits (load), and
schools and office supplies
Micro-Credit Payments : Allows disbursement of loan principals and
payment of loan interest and amortization payments to lower income
consumers with limited access to banks
Bills & Tuition Fee Payments : Allows payment of bills of various
utility companies, internet service providers, insurance companies, as
wella s schools and universities
Donations : Provides a quick and safe processing of GCASH donations to
different institutions
SMART MONEY
http://smart.com.ph/corporate/about/technology/MCommerce.htm
http://smart.com.ph/corporate/services/Remittance.htm
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I30fclyKdQc
RBAP (Rural Bankers Association of the Philippines)
http://www.rbap.org/home/
http://www.rbapmabs.org/home/
http://www3.rbapmabs.org/
http://www.mobilephonebanking.rbap.org/
http://www.microcapital.org/microcapital-story-globe-telecom-philippines-joins-with-microfinance-providers-in-the-rural-bankers-association-of-the-philippines-rbap-to-supply-mobile-banking-services-to-the-rural-poor/
Globe Telecom Philippines Joins with Microfinance Providers in the
Rural Bankers Association of the Philippines (RBAP) to Supply Mobile
Banking Services to the Rural Poor
BY Brett Rudder / September 16, 2008
"The Rural Bankers Association of the Philippines (RBAP) and Globe
Telecom Inc, the Philippines’ second largest telecommunications
provider, have partnered to extend mobile banking services to rural
banks, allowing their customers to conduct transactions using mobile
phones. The effort brings the mobile banking service G-cash, managed
by Globe Telecom’s subsidiary G-Xchange Inc, to 375 participating
branch locations. Microfinance institutions under this program become
“cash in” and “cash out” outlets that are accredited to convert actual
money into electronic money and vice versa.
RBAP is a consortium organization of approximately 700 rural banks in
the Philippines. Its Microenterprise Access to Banking Services (MABS)
assists its members in increasing access to banking services for the
microenterprise sector. The US Agency for International Development
has supported MABS since 1998. The central bank of the Philippines
Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) has approved G-cash and expects the
market for these services to grow by at least 20 percent over the next
year. RBAP reports that the gross loan portfolio of MABS microfinance
institutions is equivalent to USD 41.1 million and that their savings
deposits total USD 36.6 million."
MONGOLIA
http://www.xacbank.mn/
http://www.xacbank.mn/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=112%3Akiva2009&catid=52%3Anews&Itemid=55&lang=en
"XacBank, Mongolia’s largest microfinance institution recently
launched its partnership with Kiva, the world’s first person-to-person
micro-lending website. XacBank’s clients are now featured on Kiva.org,
and individual lenders from around the world can make small loans of
$25 over the Internet to micro entrepreneurs in Mongolia. These small
loans help businesses such as butcher shops, furniture stores and
beauty salons to succeed while enabling hardworking Mongolians to
provide food and education for their families."
ATMSend
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122642261329117667.html
Bank ATMs soon may be used for sending cash person-to-person
BY Gail Liberman and Alan Lavine / 11.11.2008
If you're without a bank account, you soon could have a low-cost way
of sending cash to others -- using your cell phone and a bank ATM.
Amid criticism that banks aren't doing enough to attract those who
lack bank accounts, a Charlotte-based company, Privier Inc., is
courting financial institutions to provide this service. Privier's
patented "ATMSend" would let the so-called un-banked transfer cash
without requiring the sender or recipient to have a bank ATM card or
bank account. The system would use bank ATMs that permit cash
deposits, said Charles Polanco, chief executive of Privier.
Western Union Co. in Englewood, Colo., and MoneyGram International, in
Minneapolis, currently dominate the money transfer business. Combined,
the two companies have 22% of the market, according to a report in
June by Marketdata, a Tampa, Fla. market research publisher. However,
new competition is rapidly emerging from Visa, MasterCard, Wal-Mart --
and the latest mobile technology allowing for financial transactions
using cell phones.
Privier would equip screens of participating bank ATMs with icons
reading "Send Cash" and "Pickup Cash." A cash sender and recipient
would press appropriate buttons to automatically activate the ATM for
an "ATMSend" transaction, Polanco said. Each bank would determine
limits regarding how much cash could be transferred. The sender first
would have to register a cell phone through a participating bank
either online or via telephone, entering a name, address, birth date,
Social Security number and cell phone number. Privier would verify the
user's identity and check information against the Office of Foreign
Assets Control list of terrorists.
At a participating bank ATM, the sender could then click "Send Cash"
and enter the cell phone number. A 10-digit withdrawal number
automatically would be text-messaged to the cell phone number
provided. The sender could follow prompts at the ATM to enter cash
into the machine and provide the recipient with the authorization code
along with the amount sent. With that information, the recipient could
obtain the cash at an ATM within the participating bank's network. All
funds must be picked up at once, and if funds go unclaimed, senders
would be notified to pick up the funds at an ATM location after 30
days.
BANK A BILLION
http://www.bankabillion.org/
https://www.obopay.com/corporate/press_releases/Grameen_Solutions_Obopay.shtml
'The Grameen-Obopay Bank A Billion Initiative' / August 05, 2008
Obopay, Inc., the pioneering service provider for payments via mobile
phones, and Grameen Solutions, the company globally recognized for
promoting economic and social development through information and
communications technology, today announced a unique, first-of-its-kind
alliance to use mobile technology to deliver banking services to a
billion of the world’s poorest people by 2018. The Grameen-Obopay Bank
A Billion Initiative will provide access to affordable financial
services, including cross-border remittances, money transfer,
payments, savings and credit accounts. By empowering life and work
endeavors with mobile technology that is ubiquitous even in the most
impoverished and remote corners of the world, Grameen-Obopay is
bringing the full power of banking to those who need it most. "I was
inspired to found Obopay when I was volunteering in Africa and saw
that while people in remote corners of the world often lacked access
to the most basic financial services, they almost all had mobile
phones,” explained Ms. Carol Realini, CEO of Obopay. “We are thrilled
to embark on a partnership with Grameen Solutions, and look forward to
working with them to bring truly powerful mobile banking services to
people everywhere."
With more than 3 billion connections to GSM mobile communications
networks currently active globally and emerging markets responsible
for 85 percent of new connections today1, mobile technology can
effectively deliver financial services to billions of underserved
people on every continent. Until now, even the most basic financial
services have been unavailable to the world’s poor because they are
physically inaccessible and/or far too expensive to be practical.
Using mobile technology to deliver banking services overcomes
previously limiting restrictions of space and time by using existing
infrastructure to give even the most underprivileged access to
financial services.
Grameen Solutions’ CEO Mr. Kazi Islam explained, "We carefully
evaluated globally available mobile money service providers with a
view to identifying a partner that fits with our vision and mission.
Obopay is clearly that partner, and we look forward to maximizing the
global potential of mobile financial services with them. By using a
technology that is already pervasive — the mobile phone — we will
clearly be able to have a dramatic impact on global poverty."
Working initially in Mumbai, India and in Bangladesh, The Grameen-
Obopay Bank A Billion Initiative will begin delivering services in
October, 2008. Commenting on the association, Mr. Aditya Menon,
Executive Director and CTO, Obopay India, said, "Obopay’s partnership
with Grameen Solutions is a clear and powerful validation of Obopay’s
ability to have a dramatic and transformational global impact on
personal finance." Grameen was founded by Professor Muhammad Yunus,
the founding father of the microfinance movement and recipient of the
2006 Nobel Peace Prize. Prof. Yunus commented that, "Mobile based
financial services will bring more power to poor people. I'm excited
about the partnership that Grameen Solutions and Obopay have created."
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