Tagattitude is a technology company specialized in phone-based electronic transactions. It offers banks, telecom operators, payment service providers, and others a micro-banking platform called TagPay. The TagPay mobile payment platform includes proximity and remote mobile money services such as retail payments, money transfers, e-commerce transactions, bill payment, salary disbursement, microfinance and savings. Yves Eonnet, CEO of Tagattitude takes through their technology (along with a live demonstration) and how it is appropriate for mobile money.
Blog
Implementing Training for E/M-Banking Agents
“The trainers were not proper; most agents came back to us and had to be re-trained by us.” This was the response of a super agent in India when quizzed on conduct of training by the staff of a prominent ANM.
This statement underlines the ineffectual nature of most training which is delivered to e/m-banking agents today. Nearly everyone understands the importance of training e/m-banking agents. But only a few have been able to design and deliver effective training programmes.
In this Note we examine the process of designing and delivering effective training programmes to e/m-banking agents. We take you through the steps involved and outline some of the best practices followed by successful ANMs worldwide.
What Will It Take To Deliver ‘Direct Benefits / Cash Transfer’ Programmes Successfully?
A much desirable, though hugely ambitious, policy initiative of transferring vast majority of the central and state government benefits, entitlements and subsidies, as cash, directly into the Aadhaar linked accounts of the eligible beneficiaries was announced by the Prime Minister of India on the 26th of November 2012 at the first meeting of the National Committee on Direct Transfers.
It is well recognised that the programme will encounter several challenges and a number of things will need to fall in place in order for it to be a success. As the political leaders and the government officials gradually appreciate the enormity of the efforts involved and the barriers to be overcome, the timelines and phasing out of the rollout are already being reconsidered.
This Policy Brief highlights the vital elements of policy changes and actions that would be necessary (perhaps inevitable) for efficient and meaningful rollout of this grand programme, even in a scaled down form.
Channel Satisfaction Measurement and Mangement (CSM) in M-Banking
Nitin Garg, Specialist and mobile banking expert at MicroSave talks about a qualitative research tool called CSM developed by MicroSave. The tool is widely used in the m-banking researches conducted by MicroSave for ANMs. It proposes that the ANM should gather regular feedback from its customers and channel partners (retailers and distributors) on various aspects of customer service such as product, pricing, technology, marketing, customer support, and so on. Nitin discusses some of the examples and interesting anecdotes from the various researched conducted by him.
FINO’s Electronic Benefit Transfer System for Tendu Leaf Collectors – A Study
Electronic Benefit Transfer (EBT) is an important activity carried out by the Business Correspondent companies. The system, in nutshell, means use of the Business Correspondent to pay out the wages or cost of produce to the rural labourers employed in government projects or to the rural producers.
Before the inception of the EBT system, the prevalent methods of benefit transfers included either payment in cash or credit into bank accounts. The complications in the former system included frauds and embezzlement by the intermediating officials.The latter system of credit into bank account caused great inconvenience to the beneficiary due to the distant branch locations and overcrowding in the branches.
The EBT system offers a solution that is convenient, as the payment is delivered at the doorstep, as well as safe from frauds and embezzlements, as there is adequate monitoring through servers and database. The current case study attempts to look at one such EBT system set up by FINO in collaboration with the Uttar Pradesh Forest Corporation Ltd. (UPFC) for the rural producers engaged in collection of Tendu Leaves.
Mobile money and partnership models
“All mobile banking deployments are categorised either into bank-led and non-bank led models. Another way of looking at this is to see all of them as partnership models. In order to reach the last mile customer in underserved areas and reach scale and partnerships are inevitable. These partnerships could be between a bank, a technology provider, MNO, BC or other financial and non-financial institutions. Each partner will bring their core strength to the model.”