News Archive

Seven of the country’s leading rural banks participated in a senior management consultation meeting to support the expansion of mobile phone banking services under the USAID-supported RBAP-MABS Program held at the RBAP Office in Manila on August 25. Building on the current achievements and outreach of the rural banks in providing mobile phone banking services, the Mobile Phone Banking – Channel Management, was introduced to the rural banks to support, sustain and manage their efforts in providing greater access to banking services in the countryside via mobile money and mobile money cash-in and cash-out outlets (CICOs).

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RBAP-MABS, together with GXI (G-Xchange, Inc.) conducted the 4th Mobile Phone Banking Services (MPBS) Accreditation and Refresher Training Course this year at the Cebu City Marriott Hotel on August 6. The training was for all interested member rural banks from the Visayas and Mindanao.

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RBAP-MABS, together with the Rural Bankers Research and Development Foundation, Inc. (RBRDFI) and Globe's wholly-owned subsidiary, Globe X-Change Inc. (GXI) will be holding a one-day Mobile Phone Banking Accreditation Training on August 6, 2010 at the Cebu City Mariott Hotel (Cardinal Rosales Avenue, Cebu City). This training is open to Visayas and Mindanao rural banks.

Visit the RBRDFI website for more information.

CGAP - Mobile banking services are beginning to revolutionize the way people in developing countries manage their money, creating opportunities for microfinance institutions to substantially improve their services. Although widespread m-banking services are currently only present in a few countries, a new CGAP Focus Note, Microfinance and Mobile Banking: The Story So Far shows how microfinance institutions (MFIs) can link into existing m-banking services to make it more convenient and cost-effective for customers to borrow and repay loans. Still, for those MFIs located in countries without an existing m-banking service, most will find it too expensive, time-consuming, and complex to develop a service on their own.

The study, which examines the intersection of mobile banking and microfinance in countries both with and without existing m-banking services (Bolivia, Cambodia, Kenya, Malawi, Mongolia, Pakistan, Tanzania, and the Philippines), found that giving customers the flexibility to make loan payments and deposits using their mobile phones typically shortens group meetings and decreases cases of theft and fraud.

“Using mobile phones to automate payments can offer significant operational cost savings for an MFI if there is a large gap between technology costs and labor costs in their market, enabling them to lower interest rates for their customers,” says Kabir Kumar, co-author of the study.

Working as an agent in an m-banking system can also enable an MFI to learn more about how m-banking works without high investment costs, while helping them differentiate themselves from others in the market, and bringing greater liquidity to their branch locations.

Kenya offers some of the best examples of how MFIs are building on an existing m-banking service. In December 2009, MFI Faulu Kenya launched a service to link Safaricom’s successful M-PESA mobile money transfer service with Faulu savings accounts. Four months after the launch, about $60,000 was transferred between the two institutions each week and 30,000 customers were using the service.

Smaller MFIs can also work together to leverage an m-banking service. One such program is the Rural Bankers Association of the Philippines–Microenterprise Access to Banking Services (MABS) program. This USAID-assisted program organized a group of 60 rural banks, using their ties with more than a thousand small business customers to serve as resellers for GCash, a mobile payments solution developed by GXI, a subsidiary of Globe Telecom.

Read the complete article from the CGAP website.

Philippine Star – Mobile payment users worldwide are forecast to increase 2.1 percent to 109 million by the end of 2010, a US-based research firm said in a report.

Gartner Research said total mobile payment transactions will total nearly 4.5 billion in 2012, up from just 125 million in 2007, growing at an annual compounded rate of 105 percent.

In the Philippines, the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) estimates that there are at least eight million Filipinos using mobile phones to make bills payments and other banking related activities.

According to Gartner Research, mobile payment users in the Asia and Pacific region will surpass 62.8 million in 2010 and represent 2.6 percent of all mobile users in the region.

In Europe, the Middle East and Africa, mobile payment users will total 27.1 while in North America, mobile payment users will number 3.5 million and represent 1.1 percent of all mobile users in the region.

Read the complete article on Philippine Star online.

Malaya Business Insight - Even as more and more Filipinos are using services available at their fingertips through cellular phones, Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) deputy governor Nestor Espenilla said he is not keen on imposing more regulations, especially a cap on service charges, on mobile banking.
“We don’t want to regulate and impose a price cap. Rather than a price cap, let competition come in,” Espenilla said.

Espenilla said mobile banking is an ideal solution for a country like the Philippines.

“Text savvy ang mga Filipinos and many are still un-banked,” Espenilla said.

Espenilla said mobile banking has turned into a competition, not only among the top telecom providers but also among banks and other firms engaged in money transfer.

He said because of the increasing numbers of people using mobile banking for their money transfer needs, some courier services are lowering their fees.

“That’s how competition is shaping. And the Filipino consumers are evidently the winners here,” Espenilla said.

The central bank earlier said there are now eight million Filipinos using mobile banking services offered by telecom providers, boosting financial services to the un-banked in the countryside.

Read the complete article on Malaya Business Insight

A joint study group of 9 members from the Alliance for Financial Inclusion (AFI) and the Pacific Island Central Bankers visited the Philippines on June 21-23, 2010 to learn about Philippine mobile phone banking. Specifically, they were interested in the regulatory approach adopted by the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) for its successful implementation.

RBAP-MABS, a USAID-supported program, presented to the study group its experiences with rural banks and microfinance clients in developing and implementing its mobile phone banking initiatives using the GCASH platform. The RBAP-MABS team also shared the lessons learned over the past 5 years or so of experience. To date, there are already 62 rural banks with 906 branches offering mobile phone banking services to their clients in the countryside.

The study tour, led by Ms. Alyson Slater from Alliance for Financial Inclusion (AFI), is composed of officials from the Reserve Bank of Fiji, Central Bank of Samoa, Reserve Bank of Vanuatu, Bank of Papua New Guinea, Banking and Payments of Timor Leste, and Pacific Financial Inclusion Programme. AFI is a global network of policymakers in developing countries that provides its members with the tools and resources to share and develop policies which promote financial inclusion.

Leaders from the mobile phone industry and rural banking met on June 3 to discuss new developments in mobile phone banking during the 2010 RBAP-MABS National Roundtable Conference in Manila.

Mr. Jaime Fraginal Jr., Head of Sales of G-Xchange, Inc. – a wholly owned subsidiary of Globe Telecom – first presented GCASH Remit, an instant cash pick-up service for domestic and international remittances. This convenient service, accessible through 18,000 partners across the country (including 3,000 partners from the rural banking network), has low remittance charges for the sender and is free of charge for the beneficiaries. Because there is no third party handling the cash and it requires a PIN number from the beneficiary, GCASH Remit is safe and secure.

By building the infrastructure to increase the flow of money throughout the nation, GCASH Remit looks to play a significant part in the development of the Philippine countryside as another remittance opportunity for accredited rural banks.

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Several technological developments for support and expansion of microfinance services were presented during the 2010 RBAP-MABS National Roundtable Conference held in Manila on June 2-3, 2010.

Ms. Rebecca Hughes, Philippines Country Director of Innovations for Poverty Action (IPA), first introduced a credit scoring model and automated loan application process via netbooks. The new loan application process via netbooks allows loan Account Officers to quickly and easily upload and prepare loan applications from the field. In addition, IPA has also added a credit scoring system into the application to better predict the borrower’s likelihood of repayment based on certain indicators such as the borrower’s background, cash flow, debt capacity and past repayment patterns of comparable borrowers. For the staff and clients, the netbooks help speed up the processing of loan applications in the field.

While Ms. Hughes cautioned that not every bank will be able to implement the credit scoring system overnight, all banks can benefit from the automated loan applications via netbooks. This can also provide banks with the first step in collecting data that can one day be utilized by the bank to implement a credit scoring system.

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A growing number of store owners are collaborating with rural banks and connecting to the GCASH network from Cantilan to Butuan City and across the region. These store owners are providing cash-in and cash-out services to support mobile phone banking services as well as mobile money transfer in these areas.

The partnership between RBAP-MABS and G-XChange, Inc. (GXI), Globe Telecom’s wholly owned subsidiary, has helped develop and implement mobile phone banking applications and m-commerce services for rural banks and their clients. Based on a secure GCASH menu, mobile phone banking clients of accredited rural banks can receive loans, make payments and deposits, withdraw funds from their deposit accounts, receive money from relatives and friends, and even buy and sell goods remotely via GCASH.

Merchant-partners provide the opportunity for rural bank clients to conveniently deposit cash into or withdraw cash from their mobile wallets. While rural banks in turn help to manage the liquidity needs of their merchant-partners.

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By: Eric Miller, guest blogger

More than 500 attendees packed into a basketball gymnasium in Cantilan’s town square to celebrate the 30th anniversary of Cantilan Bank. The gala highlighted the banks remarkable growth over the past three decades and underscored the important role microfinance services played in their success.

MABS started working with Cantilan Bank 11 years ago, when it had just three branches and 35 employees. Now, the bank is 260 employees strong with 12 branches across Surigao. The bank-wide loan portfolio grew from around P50M to P652M. The number of microfinance borrowers is 39% of Cantilan’s total borrowers with a client base of over 8,400 hard-working microentrepreneurs, small farmers, and store owners. The number of deposit accounts is 58,522 with P524M in deposits. More importantly, there are 3 depositors to every borrower, and voluntary savings by micro-depositors comprise 50% of total microloans outstanding. Indeed, the bank has grown drastically by continuously evolving to better serve their clients.

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By: Eric Miller, guest blogger

The first panel discussion of the RBAP-MABS National Roundtable Conference, moderated by MABS Chief of Party John Owens, addressed the current trends and challenges in the microfinance industry. Topics ranged from market issues, competition, the regulatory environment and branchless banking.

Ms. Pia Roman-Tayag, the Inclusive Finance Advocacy Staff Head of the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP), kicked off the panel discussion with a look into the regulatory environment. She began by emphasizing that policy and regulations are not the answer, but they provide the enabling environment and support for the market-based solutions of microfinance. To address the risks of limited technical know-how, inadequate risk management practices and governance issues of the early microfinance era, the BSP set regulations to require banks to develop adequate methodologies, risk management systems and comprehensive governance standards.

Ms. Roman Tayag noted that the current microfinance era has seen a mainstreaming of the industry with commercial investors, new products, technological innovation and a move towards financial inclusion. The current challenges for the banks include the need to find greater efficiencies, become more transparent and develop effective credit underwriting standards. For microfinance clients, she noted that financial literacy and the awareness of consumer rights and redress mechanisms are most important. To meet these new challenges, the BSP must be responsive, especially in light of the new definition of microfinance as addressed earlier in the Governor’s speech. Additionally, BSP will review consumer protection regulations, take action against financial crime and over-indebtedness, and advocate for financial literacy.

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Globe Telecom’s mobile commerce subsidiary, G-Xchange, Inc. (GXI), joined the National Convention of the Rural Banking Association of the Philippines (RBAP) to recognize its top 10 rural bank partners in cooperation with Microenterprise Access to Banking Services Program (MABS) supported by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). RBAP-MABS has been instrumental in giving clients of rural banks long-term solutions to accessing financial services including mobile banking through GCASH.

The 10 GCASH awardees: Philippine Rural Banking Corporation, Green Bank, Cantilan Bank, GM Bank, 1st Valley Bank, Agribusiness Bank, Bangko Kabayan, Rang-Ay Bank, Card Bank and New Rural Bank of Victorias.

A study group composed of six executives from YQ Bahrain, Movilway and Utiba Americas visited the Philippines on May 16-18 to take a look at Philippine mobile phone banking. Movilway CEO Fernando Fiksman and COO Dan Cohen, as well as YQ Bahrain General Manager Fawaz Ghazal and Board Director Tariq Al Saffar, were accompanied by two representatives from Utiba, the mobile wallet developer that crafted Globe’s GCASH.

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Philippine Star – The New Rural Bank of Victorias together with G-XChange, Inc. (GXI), a wholly-owned mobile commerce subsidiary of Globe Telecom, bring the benefits of mobile banking services to communities in Visayas benefiting individuals like Ate Evelyn.

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Computer World — As the texting capital of the world averaging more than two billion text messages a day, the Philippines is predicted to become the leader in mobile commerce.

John Owens, a well-known microfinance expert who serves as chief of party to Microenterprise Access to Banking Services, said with around 76 million mobile phone subscriptions in the Philippines, it is more than double than all the country’s bank accounts of 33 to 34 million. He said that potentially today people can be provided with financial services just by using the phone.

“Mobile commerce reaches all levels of society. From those who are considered the unbank (people with no bank accounts), to rural household where the whole infrastructures putting ATMs, and physical bank networks won’t reach — the mobile phone does,” Owens said, adding there are tremendous opportunities being seen worldwide about the growth of the mobile commerce industry, especially MMS (multimedia messaging service) which is now reaching almost half of the globe’s population.

Read the complete article on IDG News online.

Close to a hundred stakeholders and leaders of the Asian mobile commerce industry – bankers, mobile network operators, mobile commerce providers, and third-party solutions providers – attended the 3rd Mobile Commerce Summit Asia. The Rural Bankers Association of the Philippines-Microenterprise Access to Banking Services (RBAP-MABS) Program Chief of Party, Mr. John Owens, chaired the opening session of the two-day conference held on March 24-25 at the Crowne Plaza in Manila.


He provided the participants a snapshot of the thriving Asian mobile commerce industry, focusing on developments in the Philippines where Globe and Smart Communications continue to be two of the leading pioneers in mobile money and mobile commerce in the region. He also shared the experiences of rural banks, which have not only utilized mobile money platforms to expand access to banking services, but have also promoted mobile commerce for microenterprise clients.

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RBAP-MABS Chief of Party will chair and open the 3rd Mobile Commerce Summit Asia on Wednesday March 24 at the Crown Plaza Galleria in Ortigas City. The Summit will include bankers, mobile network operators, mobile commerce providers, and third-party solutions providers who will share the futuristic exploration of next generation mobile commerce services in Asia. Mobile commerce is already a multi-billion dollar industry that is set to expand exponential in the coming decade.

The Philippines is the perfect location to host this event as it is home to Globe and Smart Telecommunications, two of the leading pioneers in mobile money and mobile commerce in the world. The conference will focus on the growth of mobile commerce, mobile payments and near field communication focus streams, the importance of partnerships and collaboration, creating new dimensions for mobile commerce and overcoming challenges, and mobile money transfer and mobile banking services. In line with the mission of providing a worthy experience to all participants of 3rd Mobile Commerce Summit Asia in the Philippines, RBAP along with PR Bank, one of the leading rural banks and enabler of mobile financial services via GCASH, will be conducting a study tour that will feature the real scenario on how mobile money and mobile banking. The study tour will end with a visit to Greenhills Shopping Center to introduce participants to mobile commerce services being used by small merchants in the Philippines.

Taking its part in the promotion of effective use of modern technology in microfinance, MABS shared its mobile phone banking experiences during the M-Commerce World Summit 2010 held on March 17-18 in Singapore.

The summit covered mobile money transfer & mobile money remittance, mobile payment and NFC technologies, mobile banking, banking the unbanked & microfinance services, and mobile marketing and advertising. It has highly regarded expert speakers and panelist representing M-Commerce Ecosystem from Europe, Africa, Asia and the United States – including Philippines from Globe/GXI and the Microenterprise Access to Banking Services (MABS) Program.

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