Banking and telecom convergence.

Byline: SHABBIR KAZMI

In recent years, financial inclusion has been one of the most discussed issues in Pakistan. Growing awareness and availability of IT facilities has resulted in easy accessibility to banking services.

Now the brick and mortar concept of bank branch has been replaced by click. Now the use of mobile banking and in particular, payments by mean of smartphones has tremendously increased across the country.

In today's world, smartphones are one of the most important media for communication and also a medium or channel for financial inclusion as they are easily penetrated in the population and are feasible of interconnecting data economically and safely.

It can be said that when smartphones are linked to the banking system, it helps in developing new business models and provide financial services or banking services to the people who traditionally would have been excluded from the formal financial system.

It is believed that there are hundreds and thousands people in Pakistan use mobile banking services or financial services and their population is growing at a rapid pace. Though the pace of penetration of the implementation of mobile financial services is slow, it is likely to increase with the entry of solution providers.

Financial Institutions, governments and donors around the world strongly believe that mobile banking services can play an important role in alleviating poverty. Though financial inclusion was never a part of MDGs (Millennium Development Goals) which was set in the year 2000 but even though financial inclusion has moved up the plan of emerging and developing countries through AFI (Alliance for Financial Inclusion) and also including itself at the G20 summit which was held in the year 2011.

It is evident that poor people have now recognized and need a variety of financial services apart from credit facilities provided to them. This has given birth to a new concept "Mobile Money". It is important to comprehend the terms related to it and that may have bearing on the meaning of Mobile Money.

The terms m-banking, e-banking can be defined as "financial services delivered through mobile networks and performed on smartphones. These administrations might be or may not be characterized as banking administrations by the controllers, contingent upon the enactment of that nation being referred to, just as on which administrations are advertised."

The expression "Mobile Money" or "m-cash or m-money" is a kind of...

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