United Commercial Bank Limited (UCB) is reported to have 149 branches and 101 ATMs in Bangladesh. UCB originally wanted to build its own agent network so it could maintain a high level of control over its agents, ensuring both compliance with Bangladesh Bank regulations, and a high level of service for customers.

All banks offer Tranza a line of credit to finance the float account that Tranza must maintain with them. As the bank agency business has grown, Tranza now finds itself occasionally hitting the overall credit ceiling that a bank´s risk department sets for individual borrowers. From the beginning it sought to become a multi-bank network, and refused to grant exclusivity to any bank.

MobiCash would like to develop a dominant agent network at the national level. However the issue remains that every agent it invests in is allowed to offer direct services for any other organisation in the market.

Sharing his views, Ignacio Mas talks about the historical reference that relates to contemporary discussions of financial inclusion.

How diverse are the offerings of mobile money platforms? How much product experimentation is going on? Is there a healthy supply of creative new product ideas? Find out here.

Taking mobile money to the next level has got to be about solving the savings and business use challenges. Here the author presents various ways it can be achieved.

In 2012 Ignacio Mas worked with MSC to look at the state of digital financial services in India, the type of products that poor people want, and the role of microfinance institutions/SHGs in digital financial services systems. In this video he shares some of his thoughts on digital financial services systems not just in India but […]

Ignacio Mas argues instead of worrying whether poor people in developing countries can make the transition from cash to e-money, the focus shall be on how seamless the experience is.