Lets Fight – FinTech vs Strong Banks

Banking – We hear about new FinTech startups on an almost daily basis that are popping up across the world. As most of them have technology experience but almost zero experience in the banking or payment space, this makes this game more interesting. Because of their technology experience, the new entrants are making sure their products are best of class, with artificial intelligence, machine learning, blockchain, and data science at the bottom of every solution.

Mobile Banking – What and Why

1. Mobile Money Services essentially was for unbanked & underprivileged customers.
2. Mobile Money suppose to improve life for the Lower segment of society by
   1. Domestic Remittance from cities to villages
   2. Availability of Agents to withdraw cash
   3. Building Savings Culture
3. Acceptability of Mobile Money under Mobile Financial Services was the biggest breakthrough
4. Mobile money refers to Payment Services operated under financial regulation and performed from or via a mobile device. Instead of paying with cash, cheque, or credit cards, a consumer can use a mobile phone to pay for a wide range of services and digital or hard goods.
5. In developing countries, mobile money solutions have been deployed as a means of extending financial services to the community known as the “unbanked” or “underbanked,” which is estimated to be as much as 50% of the world’s adult population.

Agent Banking (Not from banks though)

Agents – The foundation of any successful mobile money business model

1. Role & Importance of Agents of Mobile Money Agent
   1. Agents play a crucial and very critical for the success of service
   2. The success of mobile money heavily depends on accessibility
      1. The agent is the primary access channel for mobile money as the conducting agent centred transaction like registrations, cash in and cash out transactions
      2. Agents trade mobile money for a commission
      3. They also act as the first contact for subscribers and it is prudent for a mobile money operator to invest in agent education.
2. Who can be an agent
   2. Agent qualification criterion is defined by the operator after considering the requirements of the regulator
   3. Individuals and companies can qualify to be agents and they have to meet the required KYC requirements
   4. The operator’s agent officers are responsible for recruiting and managing relations with the agents.
   5. The density of agents has to be predefined by the operator to maintain the profitability of agents as well as accessibility to subscribers.
   6. Who can be an agent, how agent distribution needs to be plotted on city/country map is very critica=

Mobile Money & Mobile Payments

Although Mobile Money had been designed as a peer-to-peer payment system it has gone much beyond the basic idea and as on date it helps Utility bill payments, Airtime topup, micro savings, microloans etc. and this forms Mobile Payments ecosystems. Africa especially the eastern/southern part is the home of Mobile Money. Mobile Payments are most frequently used and widely acceptable technological payment instruments

As mentioned before mobile money was essentially designed for domestic remittances (for migrants from the village to the city to send money home in a safe and secure way) which is also known as send money to peer or peer to peer send money, cash in and cash out so lots of emotions went into this and this became an emotional money service. Family members back home feel good, smile and relax whenever they see money came in on a mobile device.

Points to Note:

All credits if any remains on the original contributor only. We have covered all basics around Agent banking and importance of quality financial services data.

Books + Other readings Referred

• Research through open internet, news portals, white papers and imparted knowledge via live conferences & lectures.
• Lab and hands-on experience of  @AILabPage (Self-taught learners group) members.

Feedback & Further Question

Do you have any questions about  FinTech, AI,  Machine Learning, Data Science or Big Data Analytics? Leave a question in a comment or ask via email. Will try best to answer it.

Conclusion – On sinking Titanic, Somebody said on the upper side, if we are sinking why are we hundreds of feet above water then. That somebody can be the bank in today’s time of FinTech industry. Opportunities are countless; one who seizes them first gets the upper hand.

Thanks to regulation and central bank support through the Ministry of Innovation. Get up, spread your wings and grab as much sky (I guess there is no more land left) as you can. These are policies from Ministries of Innovation and MNOs are the best admirer and advantage takers. Sadly for the majority of the banks, this is still an unknown path and some don’t find or consider this as a preferred route.

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