Branchless banking: Zong, Askari Bank officially jump on the bandwagon

‘Timepey’ service aims to facilitate 80% Pakistanis not having bank accounts.

KARACHI:

In a development that will help Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) meet its vision of bringing banking services to 120 million mobile subscribers, Zong and Askari Bank teamed up to share the piece of the pie of one of the fastest growing markets for mobile and branchless banking; launching their branchless banking solution Timepey at the Expo Centre on Saturday.

Timpey aims to facilitate close to 80% Pakistanis who do not have bank accounts. It will allow its users to pay utility bills, transfer money to specified recipients anywhere in the country, deposit and withdraw cash and carry out account transfers.

Users do not have to be Zong customers or even be mobile phone subscribers, according to officials, the service offers complete flexibility to anyone who wishes to avail essential financial services without the need to open a bank account.

Zong is the third telecom operator to offer mobile banking services in Pakistan – Mobilink launched its branchless banking solution Mobicash last month and Telenor’s Easypaisa has been around for a while. Timpey, however, will be a first of its kind collaboration where a telecom operator and a commercial bank will provide branchless banking services under a relationship where none of the parties have any share or controlling interest in each other.

“With the help of domestic and foreign investment, the telecommunication infrastructure in Pakistan has improved dramatically; making telecommunication emerge as one of the fastest growing sectors of the economy,” Prime Minister Raja Pervez Ashraf said in a special message to Zong on the launch.

Talking about the importance branchless banking, Zong CEO Fan Yunjun said that branchless banking had successfully accelerated financial inclusion and changed the financial landscape in many developing countries. “Mobile phones are compensating for inadequate infrastructure, slow postal services, and the limited coverage of banking systems in these countries,” he added.

It is relevant to mention here that branchless banking transactions in Pakistan have already crossed the Rs85 billion-mark in January-March quarter, according to the State Bank of Pakistan. Both the central bank and the telecom regulator are seeing this as the fastest growing segment and a good opportunity for the country.



The PTA, according to a statement from its chairman, Farooq Awan has a vision in bringing banking services to 120 million mobile subscribers of the country by creating synergies among mobile operators, banks and technical service providers. With the collective efforts of regulator, operators and financial institutions, Awan said, the country has over 1.4 million mobile bank accounts today.

“There has been a significant rise of branchless banking in Pakistan as well but it is still not enough to meet the demand,” Usman Ishaq, Zong’s executive director (commercial), said while briefing the audience about the product.

“The portfolio of services later will be enhanced by introducing services like home remittances, salary disbursements, food chain transactions, payment services and transactions related to small and medium enterprises and microfinance institutions,” he added.

Also speaking on the occasion, MR Mehkari, president and chairman of Askari Bank said, “By partnering with China Mobile Pakistan, Askari Bank has built a more scalable retail network of points at which people can conveniently pay or cash out from their branchless banking accounts.” There are currently over 3,000 Timepay agents countrywide.

Officially established on April 20, 2000, China Mobile Communications Corporation has a registered capital of 51.8 billion yuan and assets of over 400 billion yuan. Currently, in terms of its market value, subscriber based and network coverage China Mobile is the largest among all the overseas listed companies.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 2^nd, 2012.