Title: UID to bring banking to the poor
Author: Karen Leigh
Source: livemint.com
Publisher: HT Media
Date (published): 25/04/2010
Date (accessed): 03/05/2010
Type of information: article
Language: English
On-line access: yes (HTML)
Abstract:
New Delhi: India’s plan to offer unique identity (UID) cards to all citizens will bring a range of banking services within reach of millions of poor who currently cannot even open a bank account, says a report released on Friday by the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI), which is executing the project.

Facilities such as microfinance are beyond the reach of many poor people in both towns and villages who do not have documentary proof of their identity.

Title: The early experience with M-PESA and what’s not to love about an ATM made out of Legos: Headlines for April 21, 2010
Author: Jim Rosenberg
Source: CGAP: Consultative Group to Assist the Poor
Date (published): 21/04/2010
Date (accessed): 21/04/2010
Type of information: blog post
Language: English
On-line access: yes (HTML)
Abstract:
Ignacio Mas and Daniel Radcliffe of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation have a new paper summing up the early experience with M-PESA - Mobile Payments Go Viral: M-PESA in Kenya...
As more people use electronic means to connect to each other, fewer use the post office. Media reports suggest the Bangladesh Post Office is taking a ‘if you can’t beat them, join them’ approach when it comes to mobile phones - Bangladesh Post Office introduces mobile money transfer.

Title: Microloans in rural areas through mobile phones
Author: Jorge L. Alonso G.
Source: FrontlineSMS:Credit
Date (published): 03/12/2009
Date (accessed): 04/12/2009
Type of information: blog post
Language: English, Spanish
On-line access: yes (HTML)
Abstract:
Soon the rural populations of Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) will have access to microloans, savings and insurance against the unexpected …… and all through their mobile phones. This is indicated by trends in microfinance institutions (MFIs), increasingly advanced mobile payment systems and the emergence of open source programs that serve as a bridge between the two.

This post will briefly explain how MFIs and mobile payments work, how open source software can facilitate financial inclusion and what challenges face this process.
(via http://twitter.com/e_agriculture )

Title: What happens when a mobile operator and a microfinance bank join up? EasyPaisa launches in Pakistan
Author: Kabir Kumar
Publisher: CGAP: Consultative Group to Assist the Poor
Date (published): 23/11/2009
Date (accessed): 23/11/2009
Type of information: blog post
Language: English
On-line access: yes (HTML)
Abstract:
EasyPaisa, the m-banking service by Telenor and Tameer, went live on Oct 14. They call it the “largest branchless banking service in Pakistan” on their website where you can watch a couple of the ads that people may have been discovering on You Tube.

See also:
Easypaisa ‘Money Transfer’ Explained
State of Telecom Industry in Pakistan blog

Title: Do low-income mobile phone users want mobile money?
Author: Kabir Kumar
Source: CGAP: Consultative Group to Assist the Poor
Date (published): 20/11/2009
Date (accessed): 20/11/2009
Type of information: blog post
Language: English
On-line access: yes (HTML)
Abstract:
Since the official launch of GCASH in early 2004, Globe Telecom’s subsidiary GXI set-up a number of initiatives to help them arrive at a strategy for mobile banking in the Philippines. As part of those efforts, CGAP and GXI partnered to roll-out GCASH in three predominantly rural and low-income provinces of Bohol, Palawan and Surigao. Our goal was to understand how to expand the reach of GXI’s agent network into smaller towns and how customers would use the service. I am writing to share briefly what we learned in terms of customer usage and preferences in the low-income provinces that we have been working in.

Title: Scenarios for Branchless Banking in 2020
Authors: Mark Pickens, David Porteous, and Sarah Rotman
Pages: 28 pp.
Publisher: CGAP: Consultative Group to Assist the Poor
Date (published): 03/11/2009
Date (accessed): 18/11/2009
Type of information: research brief
Language: English
On-line access: yes (HTML and pdf)
Abstract:
The growing use of branchless banking channels over the coming years is inevitable in most countries. But it’s far less certain whether large numbers of the unbanked poor will use these alternative channels for financial services beyond payments, such as savings and credit. CGAP and DFID undertook a six-month scenario-building project in which almost 200 experts from more than 30 countries helped answer the question “How can government and private sector most affect the uptake and usage of branchless banking among the unserved majority by 2020?”

We identified four forces most likely to shape the answers:
• The changing demographics of users
• The actions of increasingly activist governments
• Rising crime
• The spread of Internet access via data-enabled phones even in poor countries and communities

We also isolated four key uncertainties with important effects but uncertain outcomes:
• Which types of entities will be allowed to provide branchless financial services?
• Will providers craft viable business models for services beyond payments?
• How will competition play out?
• How will consumer, business, and regulator confidence be affected by the inevitable failures that will happen?

We created four scenarios that interweave these forces and uncertainties in different settings to produce very different trajectories over the next 10 years.

Title: Poor People Using Mobile Financial Services: Observations on Customer Usage and Impact from M-PESA
Authors: Olga Morawczynski and Mark Pickens
Pages: 4 pp.
Source: CGAP Brief
Publisher: CGAP: Consultative Group to Assist the Poor
Date (published): August 2009
Date (accessed): 06/09/2009
Type of information: research brief
Language: English
On-line access: yes (HTML, pdf)
Abstract:
Despite growing agreement on the potential of technology to expand access to finance, or branchless banking, there is surprisingly little data publicly available about low-income users. This Brief draws on some of the first ethnographic research on M-PESA, one of the earliest success stories in mobile phone-based delivery of financial services. The research offers insights into how poor people use M-PESA, its impact on their lives, and some unexpected consequences.

M-PESA is a mobile phone-based service for sending and storing money offered by Safaricom, Kenya’s largest mobile service provider. Safaricom customers can register for M-PESA by visiting one of more than 10,000 merchants who act as “agents” for account opening, handling of deposits and withdrawals into the customer’s virtual “wallet,” and customer support. Customers can then use an application on their mobile phone to check their balance, send money to other people, pay bills, and purchase mobile phone airtime. Customer funds are held in a special trust account at the Commercial Bank of Africa.

Since its commercial launch in March 2007, M-PESA has achieved substantial scale along several key metrics. Nearly 7 million customers have registered with the service. An average of 150 million Ksh (US$1.96 million) is transferred through M-PESA per day, mostly in small amounts averaging just over 1,500 Ksh (US$20) per transaction. So far, the system has handled over 130 billion Ksh (US$1.7 billion).

This Brief presents 10 observations on how poor people use M-PESA and how it has impacted their lives.