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  • Type: Case study
  • Date: 6/17/2011

Case study: Deploying mobile in the developing world 

Deploying mobile in the developing world
How are leading banks approaching the development and deployment of mobile services? Here are a few case studies that highlight innovative banks around the world.
For a large African bank with regional operations in more than 15 countries, the imperative of mobile payments was obvious. In some operating countries, almost two thirds of all adults had a mobile phone, but less than ten percent had a bank account. But for the bank, mobile payments was about more than banking the ‘unbanked’. It also provided an opportunity for the bank to reduce the cost to serve its existing customers and retain them in a highly competitive market.

Focus on existing bank customers

To achieve this, the bank focused its mobile solutions on their existing customer base. Having already deployed a mobile banking application, the bank was now focusing on providing a payment service that could be used for both remittances and merchant payments.


The bank currently offers an application-based payment service, but admits that uptake has been slower than expected. In part, this is due to the limited capabilities of many mobile phones in the region, but it is also impacted by their target market’s lack of formal paperwork and identification.

Universal bank mobile solutions needed

Bank executives clearly recognize the need for their mobile solution to not only be easy and secure, but also to operate on almost any handset on any network.


Already, the bank has quickly found that, with virtually no network of POS terminals and a burgeoning informal sector, P2P payments is quickly gaining acceptance as an easy and safe method for making payments. And with planned education programs and an explosion in mobile usage, the bank anticipates that its services will become main-stream in the adult population within the next three years, offering a mass of new customers to any bank with a compelling, safe and accessible mobile payment solution.

 

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The era of mobile banking and payments is dawning. Find out how mobile will change the way banks and their customers interact.