Title: A Mobile Payment Trifecta in Kenya
Author: Erik Hersman
Source: WhiteAfrican (blog)
Date (published): 28/07/2010
Date (accessed): 03/08/2010
Type of information: blog post
Language: English
On-line access: yes (HTML)
Abstract:
Kenya is quickly gaining a competitive advantage in the mobile payments space. Led by mobile operator giant Safaricom with their Mpesa product, the market locally sees huge value in mobile money transactions. Add to that a regulatory system that is relaxed enough for innovation to be encouraged, and you have a great space for interesting things to happen.

Title: CGAP releases pricing tool for mobile banking for the unbanked
Author: Claudia McKay
Publisher: CGAP: Consultative Group to Assist the Poor
Date (published): 16/06/2010
Date (accessed): 18/06/201
Type of information: blog post
Language: English
On-line access: yes (HTML)
Abstract:
A few weeks ago, CGAP released a study comparing the prices of 16 branchless banking pioneers and 10 traditional banks across eight use cases. We found that the average monthly cost of using a branchless banking service is $3.90 (PPP adjusted) compared with US$4.80 when using a traditional bank. The conclusion: branchless banking is cheaper than traditional banking, but the gap is not as wide as some may think.

Title: Bridges to Cash: the retail end of M-PESA : The challenge of maintaining liquidity for M-PESA Agent Networks
Authors: Frederik Eijkman, Jake Kendall, and Ignacio Mas
Pages: 20 pp.
Source: www.microfinancegateway.org
Date (published): 29/04/2010
Date (accessed): 14/06/2010
Type of information: research report
Language: English
On-line access: yes (pdf)
Abstract:
M-PESA (“M” for mobile and “PESA” for money in Swahili) is a mobile money service promoted by Safaricom, the leading mobile operator in Kenya. The service provides a method of electronic payment accessible through mobile phones. Once customers deposit cash in their M-PESA accounts, they store the value as “e-float” – a form of electronic value issued by Safaricom – until they are ready to use it for transfers, buying airtime, or bill payments.
“De-materializing” cash into e-float offers benefits in terms of safety (reduced risk of theft or loss), convenience (less bulk, easier to send money remotely, lower transport costs, can purchase airtime and pay bills from the phone), and privacy. The core value proposition to customers is that M-PESA allows them to send money quickly and cheaply to distant business associates, friends, or relatives, a common need in Kenya where many families have some members working in urban areas.2
By solving this customer need, M-PESA has generated a large and loyal customer base. M-PESA is used by over 40% of Kenyan adults3 and more than 95% of users report that M-PESA is faster, safer, cheaper, or more convenient than alternative services like those provided by banks, ATMs, the post office, or money transfer services offered through bus companies.4 A full 84% of users claim that losing the service of M-PESA would have a large, negative effect on their lives.
The ability to quickly and conveniently withdraw cash or deposit cash is critical to achieving the high level of value that M-PESA delivers to its users. To access their accounts, customers exchange cash for e- float at a network of M-PESA retail stores (often referred to as sub-agents or agent points). There are some 16,000 agent points in Kenya, putting one within reach of most Kenyans. In fact many locations have multiple M-PESA agent points within a few hundred meters of each other. Keeping these agent points stocked with cash and e-float so that they can meet customers’ needs for deposits and withdrawals is a major challenge, and the subject of this article.

Title: Out of thin air. The behind-the-scenes logistics of Kenya’s mobile-money miracle
Source: www.economist.com
Publisher: The Economist
Date (published): 10/06/2010
Date (accessed): 14/06/2010
Type of information: article
Language: English
On-line access: yes (HTML)
Abstract:
It is like magic. By clicking a few keys on a mobile phone, money can be zapped from one part of Kenya to another in seconds. For urban migrants sending money home to their villages, and for people used to queuing at banks for hours to pay bills or school fees, the M-PESA money-transfer service, operated by Safaricom, Kenya’s largest mobile operator, is a godsend. No wonder it is used by 9.5m people, or 23% of the population, and transfers the equivalent of 11% of Kenya’s GDP each year; or that it has inspired more than 60 similar schemes across the world.

But despite the apparently frictionless transfer of money through the air, making a money-transfer system work smoothly requires a great deal of backstage effort. Jake Kendall and Ignacio Mas of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, and Frederik Eijkman of PEP Intermedius, a financial-services firm, explain how it all works in a paper presented in late Ma

Title: Cell-phone banking offers financial help to Third World
Author: Steve Mollman
Source: CNN.com
Publisher: Cable News Network
Date (published): 15/01/2010
Date (accessed): 18/01/2010
Type of information: article
Language: English
On-line access: yes (HTML)
Abstract:
Imagine your life if you had no access to banks, ATMs, credit cards, or savings and checking accounts -- just cash that you needed to hide or carry around. It would be hard to save, plan, get ahead, take chances, or feel secure.

For billions of poor people in the developing world, that's how life has always been -- and it's a big reason why many have remained poor. And because they're poor, banks steer clear of them.

Enter the cell phone.

Title: Window on the Unbanked: Mobile Money in the Philippines
Author: Mark Pickens
Pages: 4 pp.
Publisher: CGAP: Consultative Group to Assist the Poor
Date (published): 12/01/2010
Date (accessed): 15/01/2010
Type of information: research brief
Language: English
On-line access: yes (pdf)
Abstract:
In 2009, CGAP teamed up with the GSM Association (GSMA) and McKinsey to measure the global market for financial services delivered via mobile phones (mobile money) in 147 developing countries. This is the first study of mobile money and the unbanked—those without access to formal financial services—estimated to be almost 4 billion worldwide.

The Philippines provides a window onto the complex financial lives of low-income families. Three out of four Filipinos are unbanked (Demirgüç-Kunt, Beck, and Honohan 2008). The country hosts two of the earliest pioneers in mobile money—Smart’s Smart Money launched in 2001 and Globe’s GCASH launched in 2004. CGAP, GSMA, and McKinsey gathered data on 1,042 unbanked consumers in the Philippines, split between mobile money users and nonusers.

Title: Opportunities In Mobile Financial Services
Author: Arsalan Mir
Source: State Of Telecom Industry in Pakista
Date (published): 15/12/2009
Date (accessed): 15/12/2009
Type of information: blog post
Language: English
On-line access: yes (HTML)
Abstract:
Mobile banking has undoubtedly taken the lead with the collaborative mobile banking model, where collaboration takes place between the carriers and the banks who can distribute the roles of the value chain amongst themselves. An example of this is ‘easypaisa‘ from Telenor Pakistan and Tameer Bank.
The fast changing dynamics will soon take the Mobile banking to new levels.

See also: Second part

Title: Financial literacy meets the mobile network operator
Author: Olga Morawczynski
Source: CGAP: Consultative Group to Assist the Poor
Date (published): 07/12/2009
Date (accessed): 09/12/2009
Type of information: blog post
Language: English
On-line access: yes (HTML)
Abstract:
“Ecosystem” seems to be a big buzzword in the mobile money space. Many mobile network operators (MNOs) are extending their focus beyond what they consider to be the killer applications – storing and transferring money and cultivating strategies to offer financial services at scale.

The cornerstones of a viable network are trust and ubiquity, but this is no easy task. MNOs not only need to find the appropriate partners, they also need to make the ecosystem relevant to the daily lives of their users.

Title: A Comparison of Mobile Money-Transfer UIs for Non-Literate and Semi-Literate Users
Authors: Indrani Medhi, S.N. Nagasena Gautama ,Kentaro Toyama
Pages: 10 pp.
Source: CHI 2009, April 4–9, 2009
Publisher: ACM
Date (published): Spring 2009
Date (accessed): 01/12/2009
Type of information: research paper
Language: English
On-line access: yes (pdf)
Abstract:
ABSTRACT
Due to the increasing penetration of mobile phones even into poor communities, mobile payment schemes could bring formal financial services to the “unbanked”. However, because poverty for the most part also correlates with low levels of formal education, there are questions as to whether electronic access to complex financial services is enough to bridge the gap, and if so, what sort of UI is best.
In this paper, we present two studies that provide preliminary answers to these questions. We first investigated the usability of existing mobile payment services, through an ethnographic study involving 90 subjects in India, Kenya, the Philippines and South Africa.
This was followed by a usability study with another 58 subjects in India, in which we compared non-literate and semi-literate subjects on three systems: text-based, spoken
dialog (without text), and rich multimedia (also without text). Results confirm that non-text designs are strongly preferred over text-based designs and that while task-completion rates are better for the rich multimedia UI, speed is faster and less assistance is required on the spoken-dialog system.
(via MobileActive.org )

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