Pakistan: State Bank issues draft policy
The launch of Branchless Banking (BB) by using delivery channels such as retail agents and mobile phones was announced Saturday by State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) Governor Dr Shamshad Akhtar.  The new system offers a significantly cheaper alternative to conventional branch-based banking and allows financial institutions and other commercial players to offer financial services outside the premises of traditional banks. BB can be used to substantially increase the outreach of financial services to “un-banked” communities. The provision of enabling a regulatory environment by careful risk-reward balancing is, however, necessary to use such models. (CGAP related resource)

China: Non-banking Institutions to Have Access to Small Payment System
China’s central bank People’s Bank of China (PBC) is going promulgate regulations on opening its small payment system to the non-banking institutions, said Xu Zhen, a director of PBC. The move shows PBC’s efforts to bring the small payment system into the competitive market. Detailed rules are expected to be released in 2008.

South Africa: Cell Phone Banking On the Rise
Cell phone banking in South Africa has more than doubled in one year and usage is to climb even more sharply in the coming year.  This is according to the Mobility 2007 study by technology research firm World Wide Worx. World Wide Worx’s latest study of mobile technology and commerce in South Africa, conducted in partnership with First National Bank (FNB), was released in Johannesburg on Tuesday.

MasterCard to tap ‘mobile’ data to widen reach
Mastercard is getting ready to tap the unbanked population in the country using the mobile phone customer base which has been seeing a rapid growth. The sharp domestic growth has made India a focal point for Mastercard, even as international banks like Standard Chartered, HSBC and Citi see it as a growth driver.