Mobile Phone Banking Blog

Bangko Mabuhay together with G-Xchange Inc. (GXI), a wholly-owned mobile commerce subsidiary of Globe Telecom, brings the benefits of mobile money and convenient remittance pay-out options in Cavite.

Using the GCASH platform, its branches serve as cash-in and cash-out facilities for customers who would like to take advantage of the convenience that mobile money transfer offers. Bangko Mabuhay is also an active pay-out outlet for GCASH REMIT, cash pick-up remittance service under GXI.

Bangko Mabuhay, registered as Rural Bank of Tanza (Cavite), Inc., has over P900M in assets serving thousands of clients in the province.

See full section printed on Philippine Star on August 27, 2010.

cbalingit :: Aug.27.2010 :: Globe press releases :: No Comments »

Camalig Bank together with G-Xchange Inc (GXI), a wholly-owned mobile commerce subsidiary of Globe Telecom, bring the benefits of GCASH to the countryside of Albay.

Working closely with the Rural Bankers Association of the Philippines (RBAP) and Microenterprise Access to Banking Services (MABS), a program supported by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), Camalig Bank’s nine (9) branches offer mobile phone banking services using the GCASH platform and serve the families of OFWs through GCASH Remit, a cash pick-up remittance service under GXI.

Camalig Bank has over P900 M in assets serving thousands of clients in Camarines, Albay and nearby provinces.

See full section printed on Philippine Star on August 27, 2010.

cbalingit :: Aug.27.2010 :: Globe press releases :: No Comments »

cbalingit :: Jul.27.2010 :: Announcements :: 2 Comments »

CGAP - Mobile banking services are beginning to revolutionize the way people in developing countries manage their money, creating opportunities for microfinance institutions to substantially improve their services. Although widespread m-banking services are currently only present in a few countries, a new CGAP Focus Note, Microfinance and Mobile Banking: The Story So Far shows how microfinance institutions (MFIs) can link into existing m-banking services to make it more convenient and cost-effective for customers to borrow and repay loans. Still, for those MFIs located in countries without an existing m-banking service, most will find it too expensive, time-consuming, and complex to develop a service on their own.

The study, which examines the intersection of mobile banking and microfinance in countries both with and without existing m-banking services (Bolivia, Cambodia, Kenya, Malawi, Mongolia, Pakistan, Tanzania, and the Philippines), found that giving customers the flexibility to make loan payments and deposits using their mobile phones typically shortens group meetings and decreases cases of theft and fraud.

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cbalingit :: Jul.21.2010 :: News Features :: No Comments »

Philippine Star – Mobile payment users worldwide are forecast to increase 2.1 percent to 109 million by the end of 2010, a US-based research firm said in a report.

Gartner Research said total mobile payment transactions will total nearly 4.5 billion in 2012, up from just 125 million in 2007, growing at an annual compounded rate of 105 percent.

In the Philippines, the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) estimates that there are at least eight million Filipinos using mobile phones to make bills payments and other banking related activities.

According to Gartner Research, mobile payment users in the Asia and Pacific region will surpass 62.8 million in 2010 and represent 2.6 percent of all mobile users in the region.

In Europe, the Middle East and Africa, mobile payment users will total 27.1 while in North America, mobile payment users will number 3.5 million and represent 1.1 percent of all mobile users in the region.

Read the complete article on Philippine Star online.

cbalingit :: Jul.14.2010 :: News :: No Comments »

“We don’t want to regulate and impose a price cap. Rather than a price cap, let competition come in,” Espenilla said.

Espenilla said mobile banking is an ideal solution for a country like the Philippines.

“Text savvy ang mga Filipinos and many are still un-banked,” Espenilla said.

Espenilla said mobile banking has turned into a competition, not only among the top telecom providers but also among banks and other firms engaged in money transfer.

He said because of the increasing numbers of people using mobile banking for their money transfer needs, some courier services are lowering their fees.

“That’s how competition is shaping. And the Filipino consumers are evidently the winners here,” Espenilla said.

The central bank earlier said there are now eight million Filipinos using mobile banking services offered by telecom providers, boosting financial services to the un-banked in the countryside.

Read the complete article on Malaya Business Insight

Also read: Stiff competition lowers remittance fees by 35% - BSP

cbalingit :: Jul.07.2010 :: News :: No Comments »

A joint study group of 9 members from the Alliance for Financial Inclusion (AFI) and the Pacific Island Central Bankers visited the Philippines on June 21-23, 2010 to learn about Philippine mobile phone banking. Specifically, they were interested in the regulatory approach adopted by the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) for its successful implementation.

RBAP-MABS, a USAID-supported program, presented to the study group its experiences with rural banks and microfinance clients in developing and implementing its mobile phone banking initiatives using the GCASH platform. The RBAP-MABS team also shared the lessons learned over the past 5 years or so of experience. To date, there are already 62 rural banks with 906 branches offering mobile phone banking services to their clients in the countryside.

The study tour, led by Ms. Alyson Slater from Alliance for Financial Inclusion (AFI), is composed of officials from the Reserve Bank of Fiji, Central Bank of Samoa, Reserve Bank of Vanuatu, Bank of Papua New Guinea, Banking and Payments of Timor Leste, and Pacific Financial Inclusion Programme. AFI is a global network of policymakers in developing countries that provides its members with the tools and resources to share and develop policies which promote financial inclusion.

cbalingit :: Jul.02.2010 :: international study visits :: No Comments »

Leaders from the mobile phone industry and rural banking met on June 3 to discuss new developments in mobile phone banking during the 2010 RBAP-MABS National Roundtable Conference in Manila.

Mr. Jaime Fraginal Jr., Head of Sales of G-Xchange, Inc. – a wholly owned subsidiary of Globe Telecom – first presented GCASH Remit, an instant cash pick-up service for domestic and international remittances.   This convenient service, accessible through 18,000 partners across the country (including 3,000 partners from the rural banking network), has low remittance charges for the sender and is free of charge for the beneficiaries.  Because there is no third party handling the cash and it requires a PIN number from the beneficiary, GCASH Remit is safe and secure.

By building the infrastructure to increase the flow of money throughout the nation, GCASH Remit looks to play a significant part in the development of the Philippine countryside as another remittance opportunity for accredited rural banks.

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cbalingit :: Jun.30.2010 :: MABS tips, conferences & dialogues :: No Comments »

Several technological developments for support and expansion of microfinance services were presented during the 2010 RBAP-MABS National Roundtable Conference held in Manila on June 2-3, 2010.

Ms. Rebecca Hughes, Philippines Country Director of Innovations for Poverty Action (IPA), first introduced a credit scoring model and automated loan application process via netbooks.  The new loan application process via netbooks allows loan Account Officers to quickly and easily upload and prepare loan applications from the field.  In addition, IPA has also added a credit scoring system into the application to better predict the borrower’s likelihood of repayment based on certain indicators such as the borrower’s background, cash flow, debt capacity and past repayment patterns of comparable borrowers. For the staff and clients, the netbooks help speed up the processing of loan applications in the field.

While Ms. Hughes cautioned that not every bank will be able to implement the credit scoring system overnight, all banks can benefit from the automated loan applications via netbooks.  This can also provide banks with the first step in collecting data that can one day be utilized by the bank to implement a credit scoring system.

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cbalingit :: Jun.29.2010 :: MABS tips, conferences & dialogues :: No Comments »

A growing number of store owners are collaborating with rural banks and connecting to the GCASH network from Cantilan to Butuan City and across the region. These store owners are providing cash-in and cash-out services to support mobile phone banking services as well as mobile money transfer in these areas.

The partnership between RBAP-MABS and G-XChange, Inc. (GXI), Globe Telecom’s wholly owned subsidiary, has helped develop and implement mobile phone banking applications and m-commerce services for rural banks and their clients.  Based on a secure GCASH menu, mobile phone banking clients of accredited rural banks can receive loans, make payments and deposits, withdraw funds from their deposit accounts, receive money from relatives and friends, and even buy and sell goods remotely via GCASH.

Merchant-partners provide the opportunity for rural bank clients to conveniently deposit cash into or withdraw cash from their mobile wallets.  While rural banks in turn help to manage the liquidity needs of their merchant-partners.

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cbalingit :: Jun.23.2010 :: Features :: No Comments »