Our money, our rights:

The evolution of financial services in Asia

“The stark reality is that most poor people in the world still lack access to
sustainable financial services, whether it is savings, credit or insurance. The great
challenge before us is to address the constraints that exclude people from full
participation in the financial sector. Together we can and must build inclusive
financial sectors that help people improve their lives1.”
Kofi Annan, on the announcement of the International Year of Micro-credit, 2005.

Table of contents
An introduction from Joost Martens, p2 Basic consumer protection mechanisms p9
Director General of CI. are needed as the sector evolves.

Poor people are interested in financial p2 The state can take the initiative to p10
services. improve banking services.

Poor people are not a bad risk. p4 Credit bureaux . p11

Despite this, the formal financial services p4 Innovation and regulation. p12
sector is under-developed in Asia.
To avoid the mistakes of others, is there p13
Micro-credit is a worldwide phenomenon. p5 scope for a distinctively ‘African’
In Asia, where it originated in its current approach to financial services for
form, it is growing and becoming consumers?
mainstream.
Is money transfer by mobile phone the p14
Localised micro-credit schemes are often p8 new magic bullet?
linked to both production and
consumption. Towards universal access. p16

But credit is not the only financial service. p9 Endnotes p19

Page 1
An introduction from Joost Martens, Director General of Consumers
International.
Access to stable, secure and fair financial services is important for consumers
everywhere, as in Asia. Despite relatively low levels of coverage by the formal
banking sector in some parts of the continent, studies show that Asian consumers
are willing and able to access a variety of financial services. Commonly held myths
that poor consumers present too great a risk or are simply not interested in financial
services are not borne out by the facts. Indeed, the phenomenon of microfinance
has firmly taken hold in this region, where it entered a new lease of life during the
1970s. This phenomenon continues to grow, an achievement recognised by a
Nobel Prize in 2006. Nevertheless, despite demand, financial services for the poor
are still significantly under-developed, and consumers go under-served.

The evolution of financial services provision in Asia presents a number of

interesting questions. Will Asian consumers be spared the negative consequences
of mistakes made by others? Will governments promote the right conditions for this
sector to thrive, and work with all stakeholders to ensure that the consumer interest
is upheld?

This briefing explores the latest developments in this ongoing story. It is produced
by Consumers International (CI) as part of celebrations for World Consumer Rights
Day 2010.

Poor people are interested in financial services.

Savings ratios (ie percentage of household income put aside) are higher in middle
income countries (26%) than in high income countries (23%)2.

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This readiness to save is often masked by the low coverage of formal banking
institutions in Asian countries, as in other developing regions of the world.
While in Denmark, for example, bank account coverage is 99%, less than one third
of the populations of low and middle income countries are ‘banked’3.

There are also striking variations in ‘banked’ populations between countries at

similar levels of economic development. In neighbouring India and Pakistan, for
example, 48% and 12% respectively of the population has access to the formal
banking sector4. Great internal variation, both by region and by social category, is
also likely to be found in large countries in the region, particularly India and China.

For various reasons the formal sector has failed to respond to the needs, and
indeed the skills, of millions of people. Such skills are hugely underestimated. CI’s
publication, Our money, our rights: how the global consumer movement is fighting
for fair financial services, points out that poor families often have to display a
degree of financial sophistication which has not been fully appreciated in the past.
Portfolios of the Poor, a publication by the Financial Access Initiative, studied 250
poor households in India, Bangladesh and South Africa over one year5. The
researchers found that all the families dealt with at least four types of financial
instrument over the course of the year and rural households had total cash flows
equal to 10 to 30 times their end-of-year asset values. The sheer complexity of
transactions (involving savings clubs, banks, formal and informal institutions,
savings and debts) belies the idea of the poor as financially ignorant. In fact, the
sums of money are simply less than those transacted by wealthier people. Many
financial transactions take place in an informal way and the newly emerging
services, discussed below, are building on these basic skills in new ways.

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Poor people are not a bad risk.
Most poor consumers do manage their affairs responsibly. The very low rate of
default in microcredit is evidence of consumer capability. Loan repayment rates in
excess of 95% are the norm, and have remained so for at least a decade6.
Established in Bangladesh in the aftermath of the 1974 famine, by 2007 the
Grameen Bank had 7 million borrowers. Operating on the basis of small frequent
collections and no collateral requirement, the bank enjoys a repayment rate of 98%,
with $6 billion lent since 19767.

This record has been maintained in some of the world’s poorest locations. The
World Bank’s International Finance Corporation (IFC) has collated data from the top
150 microfinance institutions showing that, globally, the proportion of borrowers
who were 30 days behind on loans was 2-3% in 20098. While this figure represents
a slight increase on pre-financial crisis average arrears rates of 1.2%, levels still
remain very low.

Despite this, the formal financial services sector is under-developed in Asia.

Examples of under-provision to poor consumers include9:

• 185 million potentially bankable rural Indians do not have bank accounts and
less than 20% of rural Indians have access to formal financial services
• In Pakistan, only 6% of bank branch networks reach into rural areas
• In Nepal only 26% of households have a bank account, this level decreases
to 16% in rural areas
• 90% households in rural Laos do not have access to formal banking
services.

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Where access does exist for poor consumers, it is often restricted to bank deposits
only, and not to other financial services such as credit and insurance. For example,
according to an Asian Development Bank study, 82% of rural Indians do not have
insurance, and approximately 73% of 89 million farmer households in the country
have no access to formal sources of credit, despite the relatively successful
development of microcredit in South Asia.

The UN Blue Book Building inclusive financial sectors for development reported
that the risks of lending to poor consumers have been consistently overrated, and
this under-estimation has continued to act as a barrier to access.

Microcredit is a worldwide phenomenon. In Asia, where it originated in its

present form, it is growing and becoming mainstream.
As long ago as 2000, a study by the UK Department for International Development
(DFID) and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP)10 found that the
informal sector appeals to the poor because:

• they welcome the combination of self-discipline and informality

• small deposits are possible
• doorstep services use a personal approach (no references required, for
example)
• there can be an easy mix with social activities (such as religious gatherings)
• loans can be made flexibly over different time periods and varying amounts.

The microcredit movement has built on these attributes to develop a new more
formalised and mutual local market.

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Its importance is increasingly recognised, and microfinance institutions (MFIs) are
evolving in the direction of the mainstream. The IFC gave 55% more every year to
microfinance lenders between 2004 and 2007, and at the global level microfinance
portfolios of private investment funds grew from $600 million in 2004 to $2 billion in
200611.

The Grameen Bank is the best known Asian MFI, but it is far from alone. In addition
to countless small local variants there are other international non-profit institutions
such as Accion International, which started giving micro-loans in 1973 in Brazil. It
now operates across North and South America, Africa and Asia, and has just
entered the Chinese market in the poor region of Inner Mongolia12.

Microcredit, however, should not be considered a magic bullet and has had to face
the problem of costs remaining relatively fixed regardless of the size of the loan,
meaning that charges for small amounts tend to be high.
For example, a survey of 48 MFIs in the Philippines found operating-cost ratios to
be as low as 10% for relatively large loans of $2,500 and over, but often in excess
of 50% for small loans of $200. Generally speaking, the cost of a $1,000 loan was
equal to about 15-20% of the loan amount. These actual results closely
approximated theoretical simulations, suggesting that the charges were simply an
accurate reflection of the costs to the lender, and not necessarily abusive13.

The response to high charges has often been to cap interest rates or other charges.
But where charges reflect the real costs of lending, capping rates may simply result
in cutting consumers off entirely from small loans, and forcing them to use informal
sources with far higher rates. This intrinsic problem was recognised by the G8 in
2004 when endorsing principles of microfinance, which express reservations about
interest-rate caps, although stopping short of outright opposition14.

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Despite the positive perception of microcredit in many quarters, it remains the case
that the financial landscape for poor consumers in Asia still leaves much to be
desired. Whether putting money aside or borrowing for an emergency, poor
consumers remain at a disadvantage in terms of limited access to formal financial
institutions. But where there is no formal service available, people find other options
to serve their needs in spite of possible risks. Family, friends, moneylenders and
pawnshops make up much of the informal sector, while MFIs constitute a semi-
formal sector of sorts. These services have become the ultimate resort for low-
income consumers and the most responsive to their needs. However, despite their
availability, these services have their limitations. Informal services are often
insecure, unreliable and can apply extortionate interest rates. MFIs also have
limitations, particularly in terms of the variety of products available. Their services
are dominated by short-term working capital loans and limited provision of voluntary
savings and micro-insurance.

However, these systems are well established and cannot be ignored. They play a
crucial role in the finances of poor consumers, who often cannot provide the
necessary documentation to meet the requirements of more formal institutions such
as government and commercial banks. Despite the problems associated with a lack
of economies of scale, microcredit is normally significantly cheaper than the
alternatives. For example, Cambodian MFI Hattha Kaksekar charges 2-4% per
month, compared with 20% from more traditional money lenders15. But concerns do
remain about the evolution of microcredit and its suitability. As the document
endorsed by the G8 indicates: ’micro-lenders should not pass on operational
inefficiencies to clients in the form of prices (interest rates and other fees) that are
far higher than they need to be’16.

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Localised microcredit schemes are often linked to both production and
consumption.
Microcredit can be used to help households and communities develop infrastructure
services such as drinking water. For example in Bangladesh, microfinance has
been used to help small scale providers in the water sector to supply consumers
not yet connected to a network17. The Community Organisation Development
Institute in Thailand uses microcredit for local water network development18.

At its simplest, microcredit can operate as loans to families for individual activities
such as rainwater harvesting, or initial connection charges to essential service
networks.

In rural areas the distinction between the consumer and producer is more blurred
than in cities. Many of the activities supported by micro-loans for small businesses
(such as baking, cloth dyeing and market gardening) often take place either in, or in
close proximity to the home. Micro-enterprises are consequently more likely to be
owned or managed by women than larger businesses. The UN estimates that
women make up 76% of microcredit customers around the world, while the figure
for Asia is 90%19. This means that support to small businesses can contribute more
directly to improving quality of life for families.

For these and other reasons it is disappointing that in China (PRC) small and
medium enterprises receive only 10% of bank credit even though their contribution
to GDP is 50%20.

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But credit is not the only financial service.
At a World Bank conference in 2000, it was reported that ‘there is a larger market
for savings products than for credit products, as has been demonstrated repeatedly
by microfinance organisations, which consistently report loan/deposit ratios of less
than 50%’21. Similarly, the above mentioned DFID/UNDP study points out that
financial services providers need to diversify. Savings and risk pooling (insurance)
are also essential services that are comprehensible to a wide range of consumers
and yet under-provided.

In Pakistan and Bangladesh, 97% of the population are excluded from insurance
(95% in Nepal)22. In India a ‘priority sector obligation’ is applied to insurance that
requires insurers to provide services to certain sectors, such as rural and socially
vulnerable populations. For example, in 2004 the obligation for life insurance in the
rural sector started at 5% of total policies in a company’s first financial year, rising
to 15% in its fifth year. For general insurance, the percentages rose from 2% to 5%
of gross premium income from the first to third years23. As coverage in India is
significantly higher than in other South Asian countries, some suggest that
government intervention of this nature has had a positive impact. However, it
should be noted that in some cases low levels of insurance taken out by poor
consumers may simply reflect the fact that they carry higher risks and are less
insurable.

Basic consumer protection mechanisms are needed as the sector evolves.

In considering consumer protection, the UN Blue book (which marked the
International Year of Microcredit) distanced itself from the traditional caveat emptor
(let the buyer beware) principle. According to the UN ‘this minimalist option is often
considered anti-consumer’24. The authors suggested that policy makers could opt
to:

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 • increase consumer information (‘truth in lending’, for example)
• invest in financial literacy initiatives (ie consumer education)
• insist that the retail financial industry take steps to protect consumers (self
regulatory codes of conduct, for example)
• encourage the development of an independent regulatory oversight body
responsible for monitoring, reviewing and taking complaints.

The state can take the initiative to improve banking services.

This can be in the form of direct provision. However, according to an Asian
Development Bank sponsored study, many state-owned financial services
institutions are badly performing. In 2006, 50% of the Agricultural Development
Bank of Bangladesh’s assets were non-performing. The Vietnam Bank for Social
Policies provided subsidised credit for low-income families, with 4.2 million active
borrowers, but return on assets was strongly negative. Such institutions became
reliant on government subsidies and thus competed with other social
programmes25.

Postal banks run serious losses in many countries but they do provide access. For
example, 89% of India’s postal bank branches are in rural areas. But ‘bricks and
mortar’ networks are slow to develop and branches are often far from much of the
population. However, governments at varying levels are starting to respond to these
problems. In India, state social payments are being made using ‘branchless
banking’ through mobile phones (see below)26. In Andhra Pradesh, it is planned for
some 30,000 village ‘self help’ organisations to be used as cash agents for
receiving social payments. In this way the state can help build up community based
financial services mechanisms, acting as a client rather than as a donor.

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Similar social programmes based on income transfer were developed in Indonesia
in 2007, Philippines in 2008, and Bangladesh and Pakistan in 2009. As this
phenomenon becomes more common, the state can establish itself in the roles of
client (paying money to consumers via banks) and promoter (sustaining bank
networks by promoting their use)27.

The UN Blue Book argued for state sponsorship over state provision, and this
position was endorsed by the G8 in 200428. This could take the form of regulation
(by credit bureaux, for example) to promote enhanced risk mitigation, and
enhanced transparency, involving legislation.

Credit bureaux.
Consumer organisations worldwide have campaigned for ‘responsible credit’ that is
neither indiscriminate nor too restrictive. The practice of assessing the ability of
consumers to repay loans is increasingly common, often through credit bureaus. In
some jurisdictions, such as France and South Africa, such credit checks are
mandatory.

An example of a successful credit bureau is the database established by the

People’s Bank of China in the 90s. It features a personal credit information system
connecting all commercial banks and some rural credit co-ops, and helps lenders
with risk assessment (and thus indirectly consumers, whose consent is required
before data is disclosed). Within a short time of being created, the database
included data on 340 million customers and 97.5% of all loans granted by Chinese
banks, including credit cards. It includes such basic information as previous
defaults or whether a property loan was granted to first- or second-time buyers.

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The introduction of this database resulted in a 10% refusal rate in applications for
credit29. While this will have left some consumers unable to borrow, reasonable
constraints on credit granting are advisable in order to avoid the recent fate of less
risk-averse markets, such as North America.

Innovation and regulation.

New innovations in financial services are developing at a fast pace, and nowhere
more so than in Asia. Technology is accelerating access to money transfer and
helping the informal to ‘formalise’. Recently, telephone operators have started to
help clients to send money via text messages. This is particularly popular among
migrant workers who can send remittances home from cities to rural areas or home
countries. If the receiving household does not have a bank account, then the
remitted sum can be converted into a pre-paid debit card that can be used to make
purchases. Alternatively this money can be handled by licensed bank ‘agents’ (see
below).

These technological innovations are approached in a variety of ways. For example,

in India ‘branchless banking’ is being developed by the State Bank of India and
MFIs such as SKS Microfinance. In contrast, mobile operators have taken the lead
in the Philippines and Afghanistan30.

The state may require banks to provide basic bank account services as a condition
of licence. Since the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) introduced its policy to encourage
‘no frills’ bank accounts in 2005, public and private banks have opened 15.8 million
accounts. However, many of these accounts remain dormant due to the
inaccessibility of bank branches31.

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Third parties can be used by banks as ‘agents’ to collect and process payments.
However, the RBI regulation, embodied in the Business Correspondent and
Facilitator Circular issued in 2006, permits banks to appoint only a narrow range of
bodies, such as NGOs, co-operatives and post-office banks as agents. This has led
to a slower growth of branchless banking in India compared to a variety of other
evolving economies such as Brazil32 and Kenya.

Another major regulatory requirement in India is ‘priority sector obligation’, which

requires all commercial banks to advance 40% of their net bank credit to certain
defined sectors including agriculture, microcredit and rural infrastructure
development. However, a 2004 survey found that in practice only 4 out of 30 private
sector banks and 7 out of 27 public banks met these targets33.

To avoid the mistakes of others, is there scope for a distinctively ‘Asian’

approach to financial services for consumers?
Although many poor consumers in the region suffer from a lack of access to
services, much of the valuable technology that is proving to be of great potential
value to poor consumers originated in East Asia. Examples include smart-card
technology, previously only used for SIM-cards and transit systems, and which is
now being used in the context of money transfer by mobile phone. Similarly, the
modern development of microcredit started in South Asia in the 70s. Indeed Asia
has made a significant contribution to the development of modern financial services
for consumers at all income levels. Microcredit is now being ‘exported’ to Europe
and North America, where microcredit systems for the poorest, such as the
homeless, are developing in rich locations such as New York and Paris.

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To some extent, recent innovations are a logical extension of traditional patterns of
remittances which are common throughout many parts of Asia. Remittances are
important both in and of themselves as a major support for families, and in terms of
the incentives they have provided for technological evolution. They can be saved to
a very high degree; an IMF sponsored study found levels of remittance saving
among families in different continents as high as 40%34.

Traditionally only about one third of remittances go through formal channels,

because even though migrants may have access to banks in the countries where
they work, the recipient families may not. Consumers may be put off by high bank
charges and high transfer charges by money transfer operators (MTOs). The global
market is heavily dominated by a handful of MTOs, leaving a gap for new
developments. The International Remittance Network of about 200 credit unions
goes some way to meeting demand by offering low-cost remittance services in
many countries and not requiring recipient families to have an account35.

Is money transfer by mobile phone the new magic bullet?

This phenomenon has increased in scale at a dramatic rate in many parts of the
world. As well as allowing easy access to services, mobile services communicate
directly to users in a simple and comprehensible way and use mass advertising to
great effect. In the Philippines, Smart Communications and Globe Telecom have
over 2.5 million active users of mobile money services combined, and offer the
equivalent of small scale transaction banking to a total of 5.5 million customers36. In
India, where a more tightly regulated approach is taken, banks are able to appoint
‘agents’ to provide mobile services in a similar fashion to that described above.
FINO, a technology provider offering various financial services on behalf of banks,
reached 5.8 million poor clients within two years37.

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The success of mobile banking is attributed in large part to cost reductions.
However higher levels of access to mobile phones compared to bank branches in
many cases is also a significant contributing factor. In the Philippines, where the
adoption of mobile banking has been particularly rapid, the level of mobile phone
penetration (49%) significantly exceeds banking penetration (26%). In other Asian
countries, however, the levels are reversed (15% and 32% respectively in
Bangladesh for example)38. Mobile operators in the Philippines such as Smart and
Globe Telelcom/GXI have been allowed to design, market and extend payment
and transfer services to the mass market in a way that traditional banks have not
done39. This is particularly useful in reaching consumers on low incomes, as 26% of
Filipino mobile banking users live on less than $5 per day40.

The considerable costs savings of mobile banking should not be underestimated.

Typical transaction costs through a Filipino bank are $2.50 per item while through a
mobile phone the cost to the bank is $0.50. It costs 30 times more to set up a bank
branch in Orangi slum, Karachi, Pakistan, than setting up an agent to manage
branchless transactions electronically. Indeed reports have suggested that Tameer
bank in Pakistan has decided not to open any more branches outside of major
cities. It has been claimed that millions of subscribers of one of the top three mobile
operators will, within a short time, become account holders at Tameer. Yet those
customers may rarely visit a Tameer branch, if at all41.

The particular circumstances of development in some Asian countries – namely

money transfers over long distances – lack of ‘bricks and mortar’ banking
infrastructure but ready availability of mobile telephone technology, have led to the
evolution of ‘branchless banking’. Will ‘clicks’ replace ‘bricks’?

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The potential for such development in Asia is clearly huge, but there are limitations
that should be taken into account. There are issues surrounding whether such
services should be bank-led (as in India, where registered MFIs and post offices
can be agents, but otherwise restrictions are tight) or whether non-bank actors can
take part (as in the Philippines, where mobile operators have taken the lead and
small retail outlets can also act as agents)42. There are also risks of new
monopolies developing. And the system will only be as comprehensive as the
extent of the mobile telephone network, which has been relatively slow to develop
in South Asia.

The root cause for long term optimism is that there are already about one billion
people on the planet with a mobile phone but without a bank account. More than
80% of the world’s population is now within range of mobile phone coverage. In
2009 the GSM association reported more than four billion mobile phone
subscriptions, with 80% of new connections in emerging markets and mostly by
lower income consumers43. To date, mobile banking has tended to by-pass
microcredit, but this may change. In Andhra Pradesh, India, SKS Microfinance has
developed a partnership with Andhra Bank that allows consumers to use
designated SKS agents to deposit money into Andhra bank accounts, and use their
mobile phones to repay their micro-loans. This demonstrates an interesting
combination of two modern innovations (mobile telephony and microcredit)44.

Towards universal service.

Many approaches to financial services for the poor are common across continents.
There are similarities between recent innovations in Asia and developments in
Africa, for example. Broad conclusions can be drawn for the poorer regions of the
planet.

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Micro credit has done much to bring financial services to poor consumers and its
success is now attracting the interest of mainstream actors. Whilst investment
should help to further increase access for poor consumers, care must be taken to
ensure that the attributes of micro credit that made it attractive to poor consumers
in the first place are not lost.

Asia’s talent for new technology may help to bring financial services to poor
consumers. However, even in prosperous Singapore, the Currency Board’s
intention to create a cashless currency in 2001 proved disappointing, partly
because consumers remained attached to cash. Far from saving money as hoped,
the experiment, which is still under way, had cost the government $1billion by
200645. And some attempts to extend SIM card technology for other payments have
not worked due to disagreements among the business partners. New technologies
are always susceptible to fallible business judgements46.

New entrants to the financial services sector are needed, but under-regulation risks
allowing dubious practices to develop. This poses a major dilemma for many
countries in Asia. According to Larry Reed of MF Transparency:
“We have laid the groundwork attracting a new contingent of actors to enter the
industry but we have neglected to build any serious checks and balances
necessary to protect the poor...”47

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Given that it is still early days in terms of banking coverage for much of Asia, some
basic strategic orientations could be adopted from the outset. CI have argued for
the regulation of retail banking and investment banking as separate activities, even
though they can be provided by the same banks. Retail banking can perhaps be
viewed as a ‘public utility’ (not necessarily publicly owned but aimed at the general
public), to be encouraged through universal service programmes, which have been
successfully applied in the telecoms sector.

The argument for universal service to be fully integrated into future policy making is
aptly articulated in the UN Blue Book:
“We suggest that access to finance should be a central objective of prudential
regulation and supervision...the two traditional goals of prudential regulation: safety
of funds deposited in regulated financial institutions, and the stability of the financial
system as a whole, should be supplemented by a third goal: achieving universal
access to financial services.”

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Endnotes
1. UN Blue Book Building Inclusive Financial Sectors for Development UN, 2006
2. Ian McAuley Globalisation for all-reviving the spirit of Bretton Woods, an examination of
developments in global financial markets Consumers International, 2003
3. Nimal A Fernando Low income households access to financial services: International
experience,measures for improvement and the future Asian Development Bank EARD
special studies Oct 2007
4. G Ivatury & I Mas The early experience with branchless banking Consultancy Group to
Assist the Poor (CGAP) Focus Note (FN) no 46, April 2008; M.Pickens, D. Porteous,
S.Rotman Scenarios for branchless banking in 2020. CGAP FN no 57, October 2009
5. Daryl Collins, Jonathan Murdoch, Stuart Rutherford, Orlanda Ruthven Portfolios of the
Poor: How the World’s Poor Live on $2 a Day Financial Access Initiative, 2009.
www.portfoliosofthepoor.com
6. The Economist, 21 March 2009.
7. I Kota Microfinance: banking for the poor, Finance & Development June 2007
www.imf.org/fandd
8. The Economist, 21 March 2009.
9. Fernando op cit
10. Leonard Mutesasira The microsave Africa experience World Bank, 2000
11. The Economist, 21 March 2009.
12. Accion launches microfinance operations in Inner Mongolia PR Newswire, 4 March 2010
13. Larry Reed The need for transparency www.mftransparency.org Accra, 2009
14. Building financial systems for the poor; Key principles of micro-finance CGAP 2004
15. Agence Francaise de Developpement Paroles d’acteurs (Key Players’ views) AFD, 2005
16. CGAP 2004 op cit
17. Unlocking the potential of the domestic private sector in WSS DFID/ WSP, London
2008; see also R Cardone & C Fonseca Financing and cost recovery IRC International
Water & Sanitation Centre, Delft 2003
18. Meera Mehta Meeting the financing challenge for water supply & sanitation. Water &
Sanitation Programme World Bank, 2003.
19. K. Boudreaux & T Cowen The micromagic of microcredit in Wilson Quarterly, winter
2008
20. Fernando op cit
21. Mutesasira op cit

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22. Fernando op cit
23. B. Ananth & N. Mor Regulatory aspects of universal access to financial services in India,
in Liberalisation & Universal Access to basic services OECD, 2006
24. UN Blue Book op cit
25. Fernando op cit
26. Ivatury & Mas op cit
27. Pickens et al, op cit
28. CGAP 2004 op cit
29. China Daily, 17 January 2006
30. Ivatury & Mas op cit
31. Pickens et al, op cit
32. Regulating transformational branchless banking: mobile phones and other technology to
increase access to finance CGAP FN no 43, January 2008
33. Ananth & Mor op cit
34. S Gupta, C Pattillo & S Wagh Making remittances work for Africa in Finance &
Development June 2007 www.imf.org/fandd
35. Gupta et al, op cit
36. CGAP FN 43 op cit; I Mas Realising the potential of branchless banking: challenges
ahead CGAP FN 50, October 2008
37. Pickens et al, op cit
38. Ivatury & Mas op cit
39. The role of mobile operators in expanding access to finance CGAP, May 2009
40. Ivatury & Mas op cit
41. I Mas & K Kumar Banking on mobiles: why, how, for whom? CGAP FN 48, June 2008
42. T Lyman, G Ivatury, S Staschen, Use of agents in branchless banking for the poor:
rewards, risks and regulation CGAP FN 38, October 2006
43. Pickens et al, op cit
44. Ivatury & Mas op cit
45. Pickens et al, op cit
46. I Mas & S Rotman Going cashless at the point of sale: hits and misses in developed
countries CGAP FN 51, December 2008
47. Reid op cit

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