13-04-2012, 11:25 AM
Virtual Conference on Electronic Banking for the Poor
040412 Ebanking Conference.doc (Size: 492 KB / Downloads: 134)
General Summary
Between 16th and 27th of February, 2004 MicroSave hosted and Charles Waterfield moderated a virtual conference on electronic banking for the poor. Electronic banking includes delivering financial services using palm pilots, ATMs, debit cards, point of sale devices and cell phones.
Delivering financial services to the poor has long been dogged by high costs and poor quality of information. Technology offers the potential to dramatically decrease operational costs, improve the quality of financial information and make banking for the poor more profitable and less risky for mainstream financial institutions.
Indications from users in Asia and Latin America are that palm pilots can reduce costs and increase the number of clients per loan officer. However, early attempts to develop more comprehensive e-banking solutions for low-income clients have been less successful for example, pilot tests for smart card banking in India were cancelled. South Africa is developing electronic banking solutions, which offer clients a wide choice of services.
Organization of this Conference Report
This report summarizes the discussions, by each of the fourteen topics listed above. There is a final section presenting overarching “Conference Summary” discussions, followed by a summary of the conference evaluations.
A listing of known ebanking initiatives
Participants shared information on various e-banking initiatives. For the most part this was done with concise lists, but in a few cases, participants provided more background and got into discussions of key principles behind their success.
Armenian online payment system
Mikhail Doroshevich: This online payment system by ArCa cards is created by the Armenian Card Unified Payment System with the support of the United Nations Development Programme.
The system is designed on the principles of transaction security and user convenience, adopted from the best international practices. The long-term goal of the system is to expand Armenia's infrastructure for non-cash transactions and create a user-friendly environment for bank customers.
Summary of Discussion
• Ebanking can serve as a logical step, or bridge, to offering other financial services, perhaps in an integrated fashion
• Participants discussed experiences with remittance services as a valuable financial service to the poor
• How and why the poor save, and how to design appropriate savings products for the poor
• The potential of smartcards in serving smaller depositors
• Participants discussed experiences with payroll cards to distribute paychecks. Unless carefully planned, such systems are a benefit to employers, but not necessarily employees who may have difficulties in accessing their pay.
• Note: a thorough discussion on credit scoring appeared in Topic
Ebanking as a bridge to other financial services.
David Cracknell: Today’s question relates to additional services that can build upon ebanking. I can think of several:
1. Credit scoring ... and as a consequence of that an expansion in the availability of credit
2. Data mining ... predicting additional service demands of a bank's existing clientele ...
3. Government payments
4. Payroll based services
5. Transport systems
6. Loyalty programmes
7. Airtime top-up
8. Credit Bureau: This one needs careful thought ... given the importance of the privacy of information.