The article in the url below outlines the steps mobile phone companies are taking to develop products that appeal to consumers at the bottom-of-the-pyramid (Issues: Profit, p200):
“A study by Gartner, a technology research group, of related security issues estimated mobile phone payment systems could be available to 15 per cent of the world's 3bn unbanked people by the end of this year.”
The availability of mobile phones and the level of current technology make banking and financial services particularly amenable to the needs of BOP consumers. Often, consumers in this target market do not have bank accounts, but need to take out a loan, pay bills, or send money to friends and relatives, all of which can be done using their mobile phone:
“Mobile technology has the potential to offer cheap no-frills banking, at low risk, because transactions are monitored in real-time, on widely-used, high-quality infrastructure.”
This article came from a supplement in the FT on Sustainable Banking. Other articles in the same supplement can be found at:
http://www.ft.com/reports/sustainablebanking2008
Have a good weekend.
Dave
Bill Werther & David Chandler
Strategic Corporate Social Responsibility
© Sage Publications, 2006
http://www.sagepub.com/Werther
FT REPORT - SUSTAINABLE BANKING 2008
Mobile phone operators revolutionise cash transfers
Tieman, Ross
739 words
3 June 2008
Financial Times
Surveys SBA1
04
http://us.ft.com/ftgateway/superpage.ft?news_id=fto060220081321472830
