Will mobile banking change the world?
The Economist reports that the mobile phone is making far-reaching changes the way people in some of the poorest nations earn and save money. In Andile Mbatha’s hair cutting saloon, in Soweto, South Africa over half of the customers pay instantly using a phone, helping him reduce the amount of money he has to carry home and to the bank. While nations like Japan, Korea and Philippines have been the early adopters of mobile banking, experts believe that the real potential could lie in the developing world, where mobile banking could bring the world’s poor who currently have no access to banks. About half a million South Africans now use their mobile phones as a bank. Besides sending money to relatives and paying for goods, they can check balances, buy mobile airtime and settle utility bills.
In contrast, United States, the world’s largest economy is waking up to the possibilities of mobile banking InformationWeek reports that 2007 could be the year when Americans start using mobile phones to access their banks.
Here’s a very interesting presentation on TED, by Iqbal Quadir of GrameenPhone, Bangladesh, of how the mobile phone is being used to fight poverty in the nation.
My Phone. My Wallet. « Alternative marketing thinking 9:12 am on May 11, 2007 Permalink |
[...] are available, these sort of initiatives are easy to implement. But as some experts believe, the real power of the mobile wallet will be unleashed in rural and unconnected areas where exotic equipment is hard to come by. [...]
The Future Of Finance « Alternative marketing thinking 5:47 pm on April 1, 2009 Permalink |
[...] the primary transaction channel. In many parts of the world mobiles are showing us how even the unbanked can be reached with the spread of mobile banking. Personal financial banking moves to the cloud. Services like [...]