Mobile Phone Banking Blog

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 »

By: Eric Miller, guest blogger

More than 500 attendees packed into a basketball gymnasium in Cantilan’s town square to celebrate the 30^th anniversary of Cantilan Bank. The gala highlighted the banks remarkable growth over the past three decades and underscored the important role microfinance services played in their success.

MABS started working with Cantilan Bank 11 years ago, when it had just three branches and 35 employees. Now, the bank is 260 employees strong with 12 branches across Surigao. The bank-wide loan portfolio grew from around P50M to P652M. The number of microfinance borrowers is 39% of Cantilan’s total borrowers with a client base of over 8,400 hard-working microentrepreneurs, small farmers, and store owners. The number of deposit accounts is 58,522 with P524M in deposits. More importantly, there are 3 depositors to every borrower, and voluntary savings by micro-depositors comprise 50% of total microloans outstanding. Indeed, the bank has grown drastically by continuously evolving to better serve their clients.

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cbalingit :: Jun.18.2010 :: Features :: No Comments »

By: Eric Miller, guest blogger

The first panel discussion of the RBAP-MABS National Roundtable Conference, moderated by MABS Chief of Party John Owens, addressed the current trends and challenges in the microfinance industry. Topics ranged from market issues, competition, the regulatory environment and branchless banking.

Ms. Pia Roman-Tayag, the Inclusive Finance Advocacy Staff Head of the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP), kicked off the panel discussion with a look into the regulatory environment. She began by emphasizing that policy and regulations are not the answer, but they provide the enabling environment and support for the market-based solutions of microfinance. To address the risks of limited technical know-how, inadequate risk management practices and governance issues of the early microfinance era, the BSP set regulations to require banks to develop adequate methodologies, risk management systems and comprehensive governance standards.

Ms. Roman Tayag noted that the current microfinance era has seen a mainstreaming of the industry with commercial investors, new products, technological innovation and a move towards financial inclusion. The current challenges for the banks include the need to find greater efficiencies, become more transparent and develop effective credit underwriting standards. For microfinance clients, she noted that financial literacy and the awareness of consumer rights and redress mechanisms are most important. To meet these new challenges, the BSP must be responsive, especially in light of the new definition of microfinance as addressed earlier in the Governor’s speech. Additionally, BSP will review consumer protection regulations, take action against financial crime and over-indebtedness, and advocate for financial literacy.

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cbalingit :: Jun.10.2010 :: MABS tips, conferences & dialogues :: No Comments »

1st Valley Bank together with G-Xchange Inc. (GXI), the wholly-owned mobile commerce subsidiary of Globe Telecom, brings the benefits of mobile banking services to Filipinos in Mindanao.

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), 1st valley bank helps Mindanao by making banking products and services even more accessible to clients.

Through GCASH, 1st Valley Bank is able to enhance its “at your doorstep” financial service offerings in Lanao del Norte, Misamis Occidental, Misamis Oriental, Bukidnon, Zamboanga del Norte, Zamboanga del Sur, Zamboanga Sibugay, and the cities of Iligan Ozamiz, Oroquieta, Dipolog, Cagayan de Oro, and Zamboanga.

By pursuing pioneering banking products and services, 1st Valley Bank, with the support of RBAP-MABS and GCASH, has empowered micro-enterpreneurs like Aling Romela to increase their success through mobile banking.

cbalingit :: Feb.18.2010 :: Globe press releases, mobile phone banking client stories :: 2 Comments »

About 15 kilometers from Palayan City, Nueva Ecija lies the municipality of Laur, the home of GM bank’s satellite office (or other bank office - OBO), which opened in August 2008. A third class municipality with about 5,500 households or 30,900 people, Laur serves as an ideal place to accommodate both existing and potential bank clients.

To get to Laur, one has to drive along this winding road.

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cbalingit :: Apr.03.2009 :: Features :: No Comments »

Who says only clients can enjoy rural banks’ mobile phone banking services (MPBS)?

Mr. Catalino Vegiga, the security guard of GM Bank’s Laur satellite office (or other bank office, OBO) in Nueva Ecija, receives his monthly salaries directly through his mobile phone.

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cbalingit :: Apr.03.2009 :: Features :: No Comments »

Hazel is a seamstress at Bibota Industries, a garments shop that began many years ago making rags that sold at 2 US cents per piece.

With the help of microfinance loans through Green Bank, the company gained reliable and prompt access to credit which kept the business going and growing.

In the past, Green Bank’s account officer would travel 45 minutes by motorcycle to collect loan repayments. A recent innovation of Green Bank now allows Bibota Ind to send payments using their mobile phone via the bank’s Text-A-Payment service. Transactions are cheaper and almost instant for both the borrower and the bank. Mobile payments allow borrower and bank to use their time and resources for more productive work.

Bibota has come a long way and now supplies garments to some of the the country’s leading signature clothing chains.

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cbalingit :: Oct.08.2008 :: mobile phone banking client stories :: No Comments »

Mrs. Sheila Milan owns W’s Pizza, a pizza parlor with branches in three Mindanao towns (Cantilan, Madrid, and Tandag). In March 2007, Sheila, a borrower and depositor of Cantilan Bank since 2005, agreed to become a bank partner-merchant and started accepting GCASH from her customers. Since then, Sheila has seen her sales expand because of mobile payments. Now, she is able to accept orders for delivery that are paid through GCASH. All three of her parlors now accept GCASH as payment; the cashiers of the other two branches send their GCASH sales to her at the end of each day phone-to-phone.

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cbalingit :: Sep.26.2008 :: mobile phone banking client stories :: No Comments »