Archive for: Cambodia
by Guest Blogger : Thursday, September 9, 2010
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This conversation is moderated by David Kleiman, Managing Director, and Joep Roest, Business Development Manager, of WING. WING partners with VisionFund Cambodia (an MFI) as an agent. Veasna Chumsam, Business Initiative Manager at VisionFund, is also participating.
WING is a mobile payments provider (wholly owned by ANZ Bank) that offers customers a mobile wallet with which they can transfer money and buy goods and services, including airtime. When we launched in January 2009, we partnered with MFIs to leverage their network of branches. We currently operate 600 agents in all 24 provinces of Cambodia. Agents perform a number of functions such as cash in, cash out and customer registration. We have attracted 160,000 customers.
Why we partnered with MFIs
When WING launched there were no existing retail networks we could leverage. The only organizations that had the required provincial presence were the MFIs. We engaged with VisionFund early on in the development of the WING service prior to launch. VisionFund is part of World Vision International and was the MFI that was forward looking enough to see the opportunity. They provided us with an instant network at launch. We launched with 8 of their branches and soon after increased to 26 Vision Fund branches – and 17 branches from other MFIs.
The first step is to use the MFI branches as agents. Our roadmap for MFI partnership includes facilitating loan collection, disbursement and deposit taking. We plan to develop the other areas later once we had made our organizations familiar with each other and once we had enough capacity to pursue these opportunities properly.
Successes
· We work with 26 of their 87 branches
· Smooth process between the two businesses
· Clear roadmap outlining next steps
Challenges
• The commission earned by VisionFund on registration and cash-in and cash-out has not been significant. For them to really see more benefit from cooperation, we need to move into higher value areas of the partnership such as loan collection and disbursement. They expect to experience significant cost savings through enhanced efficiency of collections once this has started.
• Perception that there is a lack of capacity to perform WING transactions
• Differing motivation between the full-time WING Pilots (who are trained to sign up customers and paid commissions on those sales) and Vision Fund staff who are salaried and thus not clearly incentivized to fully cross-sell and promote WING.
Questions for Discussion:
1. What compelling reasons do you see for an MFI to act as an agent for a mobile money implementation?
2. Besides acting as an agent, how can the relationship be developed to add more value to both parties?
3. Recognizing that the relationship is part of a road map – when is the right time to move to the next phase?
 What does mobile money cost for the unbanked and underbanked? CGAP releases pricing study across 16 providers in 10 countries
The conclusion: mobile banking and other forms of branchless banking are cheaper than traditional banking, but the gap between the two may not be as wide as some may think.
On average, branchless banking is 19% cheaper than banks. Why isn’t the pricing gap wider? Mobile money providers might be keeping profits for themselves and not passing them on in lower costs. There could be a good reason.
It is possible that establishing a successful, scaled branchless banking service could be more expensive than expected. Some branchless banking providers want to leave room to come down on prices as more competitors enter the market.
Other highlights:
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The lower the transaction value, the cheaper branchless banking is in comparison with banks. For example, at a transactional value of $23, branchless banking is on average 38% cheaper than commercial banks the study looked at.
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Branchless banking is 54% cheaper than informal options for money transfer.
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Customer usage is influenced not only by absolute prices but by the way a service is priced. For example, in order to encourage trial of money transfers, some services offer free deposits, which make branchless banking an affordable way to save.
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Average branchless banking price is $3.90 per month.
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Informal providers charge double the price for a money transfer than a branchless banking provider.
Services analyzed:
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Afghanistan: M‐Paisa
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Brazil: Bradesco and Caixa
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Cambodia: WING Money
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Cote d’Ivoire: MTN Mobile Money, Orange Money
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India: Eko
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Kenya: M‐PESA and Zap
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Pakistan: easypaisa
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Philippines: GCash and Smart Money
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Tanzania: M‐PESA, Zap
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South Africa: MTN Mobile Money, WIZZIT
The study found that by comparing 26 branchless banking pioneers and traditional banks with products aimed at the same kind of customers, on average, branchless banking is 19% cheaper across eight use cases:
1. Sending Money Transfer
2. Receiving Money Transfer
3. Short‐term safekeeping
4. Medium‐term saving for asset
5. Bill Payments
6. High Usage (as a proxy for financial inclusion)
7. Average monthly transactions per M‐PESA user in 2008
8. Average monthly transactions per Kenyan banking customer in 2008
-Jim Rosenberg
by Jim Rosenberg : Tuesday, March 9, 2010
To promote effective regulation of branchless banking, especially mobile banking, CGAP, DFID, and the Alliance for Financial Inclusion (AFI) have organized the third Global Leadership Seminar for high-level policymakers and regulators who set policy for branchless banking, including mobile banking. CGAP’s Technology Program and AFI are supported by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. This week we’re blogging from the seminar.
Last fall, leaders of G-20 nations identified financial inclusion as a policy priority in a communiqué:
…we will launch a G-20 Financial Inclusion Experts Group. This group will identify lessons learned on innovative approaches to providing financial services to these groups, promote successful regulatory and policy approaches and elaborate standards on financial access, financial literacy, and consumer protection.
CGAP and AFI are working with the G-20 as it eyes increasing financial inclusion with information communication technology (ICT). To dig deeper into this process and how it will be evaluated for success, I interviewed Paul Flanagan, co-chair of the G-20 Financial Inclusion Experts Group and General Manager, International Finance Division, Australian Treasury.
What is Australia’s interest in branchless banking and the G-20 agenda?
Australia’s interest in the Financial Inclusion Experts Group, and in particular the Access through Innovation Sub-Group, reflects Australia’s interest in ensuring the G-20 provides practical leadership on development related issues. Korea has made it clear that development will be a major theme in the November Leader’s Summit, and our work will be an important part of this focus. Australia is an active member of the G20 and is committed to supporting its work as the premier forum for international economic cooperation.
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by Jim Rosenberg : Wednesday, April 15, 2009
 WING Pilots (sign-up agents) selling starter kits at an activation event at a university in Phnom Penh. Brad Jones is Managing Director of WING Cambodia. WING is a business that has been established by ANZ, one of the top 40 global banks, to create a mobile payments capability in an emerging market. WING was launched on 21 January 2009 by ANZ Chief Executive Officer, Mike Smith, and the Deputy Governor of the National Bank of Cambodia, Her Excellency Neav Chanthana. This followed a two month pilot period, where a small number of customers completed transactional activity and WING tested systems and business processes.
Since the launch, WING has been actively increasing its customer base through a mix of marketing and sales activities. WING currently has more than 150 points of representation in Cambodia, and is represented in 16 of the nation’s 24 provinces. WING uses the USSD channel to serve customers and is currently in partnership with one mobile operator, with more to follow shortly.
Tell us a bit about your business and who you’re trying to serve.
The WING customer base is primarily the under and un-banked of Cambodia. There are however a variety of segments within this large group. WING has focused on providing a service to garment workers, and other rural-originated customers who have traveled to Phnom Penh and other urban centers for work. The WING product provides them with a safe, affordable and fast way to transfer money to their relatives who rely on this remittance flow for education, housing and other staples. In urban centers, we have focused on the large student population, as the convenience of person-to-person transfer and airtime top-up makes WING an attractive product for them. We aim to expand our services to rural communities to help educate the families of urban-based workers about the convenience for them and their families of using WING rather than informal and less secure methods of money transfer.
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