Monet selects Fundamo to launch shared mobile money network for Bank Alfalah and Warid Telecom in Pakistan
Fundamo, a Visa company and one of the world's largest specialist mobile financial service providers, has been selected by Monet, an independent mobile financial services company, to launch a mobile money network in Pakistan.
The platform, now approved by the State Bank of Pakistan, will enable providers and partners that share a common objective, to accelerate the delivery of convenient, secure and affordable mobile financial services to the banked, unbanked and underbanked of Pakistan.
Bank Alfalah (BAFL), the sixth largest financial institution in Pakistan, and Warid Telecom (Warid) have teamed up to launch a new mobile financial services brand on the platform, which comes as a recent study by the Boston Consulting Group estimates that 35% of Pakistan's adult population will be using mobile financial services by 2020.
The platform will enable BAFL and Warid to jointly offer mobile and branchless banking to its existing and potential customer base. Monet provides a managed service platform, agent management services and bill aggregation services to new financial institutions and network operators interested in entering branchless banking services with a faster time to market. Monet is creating linkages with existing deployments, financial switches, channels and networks to provide a standardized offering in the market.
Despite the growth of financial services the majority of Pakistanis remain unbanked. According to the Pakistan Access to Finance Survey, only 12% of the population has access to formal financial services (2012). Conversely, mobile penetration stands at nearly 70% (Pakistan Telecommunications Authority, 2013).
'We are building an open and collaborative eco-system which benefits all the stakeholders of the financial services ecosystem in Pakistan. Collaborative mobile financial services, as opposed to bank-led or telco-led deployment, is the paradigm shift which will assist in creating a bigger and less costly enabling environment for the issuers, acquirers and service providers,' said Ali Abbas Sikander, CEO of Monet.
'Financial institutions are looking beyond technology, and want to focus on utilising it to offer products that give them access to new customers with a branchless advantage,' added Sikander. 'Fundamo technology will enable easier interactions across our shared eco-system; our Mobile Money Network. This will drive collaboration between banks, mobile operators, merchants and distribution networks to bridge the financial services divide between the banked and unbanked customers.'
Commented Aletha Ling, COO at Fundamo: 'The platform allows service providers to think big, start small and scale fast. The result will be an ecosystem that that will support the long term and sustained growth of the Pakistani mobile financial services market. We have a deep understanding and commitment to the Pakistan market having worked with a number of providers from the very early stages of the market. We are committed to working with our clients to achieve not only the technical but also the business success of their mobile money projects and look forward to working with the team at Monet to leverage our joint capabilities for market success.'
