Borrow a relative’s credit card. Have a friend pay. For those excluded from the formal financial system, paying online is more often a matter of finding the right proxy than finding the right tool. Innovations such as mobile wallets continue to expand access to electronic payments.
No-frills - or basic bank accounts - are another tool in the arsenal of central banks and financial service providers that are interested in promoting universal financial inclusion. They traditionally have two defining characteristics.
Despite encouraging advancements in the number of first time bank account holders, a startling gender gap persists in financial inclusion as a result of a variety of barriers to access across the developing world.
In Pakistan, there are two primary transaction channels in the branchless banking sector: mobile wallets, and over-the-counter (OTC). In contrast to the mobile wallet platform where customers execute all transactions on their mobile phones themselves, the OTC model is facilitated by an agent. This channel is a convenient and reliable.
There has been a steady rise in the promotion of mobile wallets as a viable alternative to conventional banking services.This innovative channel, MNOs seek to streamline the banking process and increase financial outreach to the wider population.
M-Shwari, the first digital credit and savings account service of its kind, was launched in Kenya in 2012, and has since gained tremendous popularity, prompting numerous similar deployments to emerge worldwide.