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Highlights and Headlines for January 2011

The news wires have been busy with the recent announcement of partnerships and joint ventures in the Indian branchless banking market. India’s largest public sector bank, the State Bank of India, announced a joint venture with the mobile operator Bharti Airtel to offer mobile banking. Meanwhile, India’s largest private sector bank, ICICI Bank Ltd, announced its tie-up with Vodafone Essar to bank the unbanked via the mobile phone.

Borderless Branchless Banking

Are international remittances the final frontier for branchless banking? Formal remittance flows to developing countries are estimated to be US $325bn in 2010: in some countries these flows outweigh overseas development aid and constitute a sizeable proportion of the economy – international remittances equal 12% of GDP in the Philippines.

Are Girls Better at Planning and Saving than Boys?

While there might be a selection bias in terms of fewer boys in the universe actually saving, there is also a perception that boys are not adept at managing their money.

An Alternative to M-PESA? Orange and Equity Bank Launch Iko Pesa

There’s been news of several new mobile money launches over the last few weeks. Digicel in Haiti has just launched its TchoTcho Mobile service. Its main competitor Voila has launched its service for use by relief organizations throughout the country.

Social Protection and Financial Inclusion

The 2010 Global Expert Colloquium on Savings and CCTs was co-sponsored by the Ford Foundation, Citi, UNDP, New America Foundation and Proyecto Capital.

Postal Savings Banks Reinvigorated by Increased Competition

Postal banks in South Africa and Kenya are celebrating their 100th anniversary. But the environment has changed dramatically with the advent of mobile money and increased interest from commercial players in the unbanked market.

10 Things You Thought You Knew about M-PESA

Few initiatives in microfinance, or for that matter in development, have been as successful as M-PESA: 3 and a half years after launch, over 70% of households in Kenya and more importantly over 50% of the poor, unbanked and rural populations use the service.

Where Will the Next Mobile Money Innovation Come From?

Kenya grabs a lot of attention with mobile money, but is all the innovation happening at the top of the food chain?

Getting Beyond Payments

Most branchless banking services help clients move money over distance : a money transfer to a family member in the countryside, a bill payment to the utility company, a social benefit from the government.

Highlights from the CGAP Technology Blog – October 2010

The launch of TigoPesa in Tanzania was the headline on our blog starting in October.

Branchless Banking 2010: Is the Hype Justified?

After several years of very high profile attention on mobile money and other branchless banking schemes, we think it’s time to test the hype. Or more accurately, we’ve wanted to for awhile.

Count Them…4 Mobile Money Services Now Live in Tanzania

TigoPesa, created by Tanzania’s fastest-growing mobile network operator, Tigo, is the fourth mobile money service offered in Tanzania. Vodacom Tanzania, a subsidiary of the Vodafone Group, is the leading mobile network operator with a 37% market share.

Mobile Money Innovation… Waiting… Waiting…

To some extent, falling hardware prices and mobile data transfer costs make it inevitable that we will see suddenly cheap technology applied to old problems. But isn’t there more we could be doing?

Priorities for Branchless Banking (Part 3 of 3)

Branchless banking is best conceived of as the construction of a network utility. In the third of three blog posts we’ve featured this week, Ignacio emphasizes the applications of this utility for poorer customers.

Priorities for Branchless Banking (Part 2 of 3)

In order for branchless banking to prove to be transformational, it needs to demonstrate not only that it can be scalable (priority #1), but also that it can work for a range of providers and for a range of customer segments – including the poor. These are the two next priorities for branchless banking.

Priorities for Branchless Banking (Part 1 of 3)

It is easy to foresee that in the future normal neighborhood stores will be used by poor people everywhere to conduct basic financial transactions, that technology based on real-time communications will be used to make those transactions reliable and secure, and further that providers will increasingly rely on people’s own mobile phones rather than on deploying cards and dedicated point of sale terminals.

Microfinance & M-banking Virtual Conference Recap

Thank you to everyone who participated in CGAP’s virtual conference over the past two days on the topic of microfinance and mobile banking, coinciding with the release of our latest Focus Note Microfinance and Mobile Banking: The Story So Far.

Is There an App to Track M-PESA’s Growth?

Though many say it will be years (or never) by the time near-field communication (NFC) technology gets into the hands of the mass market customer, at least one very notable handset maker appears to be making moves towards integrating NFC into its future products.

How Can Microfinance Take Advantage of Mobile Banking?

A wide gulf separates those institutions that are in countries with existing m-banking services and those that are not.

Virtual Conference: Getting Past the Technology Hurdles at MFIs

Over the past several months, CGAP and Grameen Foundation, with support from the MasterCard Foundation and the EU/ACP Microfinance Programme, hosted a series of four workshops to discuss the back office challenges at MFIs. Workshops took place in Washington, DC, Kenya, India, and Peru in an attempt to understand the issues at both a global and regional level.