Sections:
Regulating mobile phone banking
12 February 2008
DFID and
CGAP (the Consultative Group to Assist the Poor) have published a
focus note for policy makers in developing countries to assist them in
developing appropriate regulation for mobile phone banking.
Mobile phones and other new technologies like debit-card machines have the
potential to massively expand the provision of financial services such as
savings accounts, loans and insurance to poor people whom banks are not
presently serving. But if “transformational branchless banking” is going to take off, it will
need to be regulated in such a way that allows players other than banks to enter
the market, while at the same time ensuring that consumers are protected.
Regulating Transformational Branchless Banking: Mobile Phones and Other
Technology to Increase Access to Finance 
(442
kb) is based on assessments of policy and
regulation in seven key countries, including interviews with more than 500
people from governments, the private sector, and international organizations in
Brazil, India, Kenya, Pakistan, the Philippines, Russia and South Africa.
The focus note is a product of collaboration between DFID and the CGAP, a
consortium of 33 public and private donors working together to expand poor
people's access to financial services and a leading authority on microfinance
policy, in partnership with the
GSM Association, the global trade association
for over 700 mobile phone operators.
Further information, including country specific assessments, can be found on the
branchless banking pages of the
CGAP
website.
Links
- Mobile phone banking (m-banking) 8 May 2007
- M-PESA: 1 million Kenyans bank by phone 19 October 2007