Mobile Banking for the Poor

post from Internet Sector and Stocks Analysis from Seeking Alpha on 05 August 2008 05:13:04 PM. © Internet Sector and Stocks Analysis from Seeking Alpha

Felix Salmon submits:

At a press conference Tuesday morning in Mumbai, mobile-banking company Obopay announced an alliance with Grameen Solutions -- an alliance with an extraordinarily ambitious goal. In ten years' time, the companies said, they would like to see 1 billion of the world's poor -- people living on less than $2 a day -- receiving banking services via their mobile phones. It probably won't happen, but it would be amazing if it did.

Mobile banking is not new, of course, although it is still young. What sets this particular initiative apart are three things: its global ambition, its emphasis on the poor, and the central role of microfinance institutions (MFIs).

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