Tuesday, September 02, 2008 Globe, rural banks renew partnership
GXI president Rizza Maniego-Eala and RBAP president Tomas Gomez IV signed the agreement, which serves as the partnership's framework for the expansion of MPBS.
Using the GCash payment platform, MPBS, developed under RBAP's Micro-enterprise Access to Banking Services (Mabs) program, will be made available to more than 500 rural bank branches and their clients.
Since 1997, Mabs has been working with rural banks to assist them develop the capability to profitably provide financial services to the micro-enterprise sector.
The program has received support from the United States Agency for International Development (USAid) and is jointly implemented with RBAP with oversight from the Office of the President through the Mindanao Economic Development Council (Medco).
GCash is Globe's flagship mobile commerce service which allows Globe and TM subscribers access to a cashless and cardless method of facilitating money transfer with just a text message.
GXI and RBAP through the Mabs program have been working together since early 2005 to develop and roll-out MPBS that provide clients of rural banks access to complete banking transactions, which include making micro-loan payments (Text-A-Payment or TAP), paying bills (Text-A-BillPayment or TAB), making deposits (Text-A-Deposit or TAD) and withdrawals (Text-A -Withdrawal or TAW), sending or receiving domestic or international remittances (Text-A-Remittance or TAR), and disbursing and receiving salaries (Text-A-Sweldo or TAS), using only their mobile phones through GCash.
These mobile phone banking services will be expanded under a renewed agreement between RBAP and GXI.
In her remarks during the signing ceremony, Maniego-Eala expressed both Globe and GXI's renewed commitment to the partnership with RBAP and the Mabs Program.
"We believe that Mabs is a fundamental cornerstone in the combined efforts of RBAP and GXI in addressing the growth of the lower socio-economic groups in the country. What seemed to be a daunting task around three years ago with respect to having rural banks and their clients use GCash as a convenient and low-cost mobile banking solution has now become a growing reality," she said.
"Mobile banking through GCash as we know it today has been proven to be an efficient technology solution for lower income segments, converting many unbanked customers into bank clients with access to various financial services," she added.
Gomez, for his part, pointed out that less than a decade ago, the rural banking industry was characteristically technology-averse.
He however, countered that, "today rural banks have embraced technology like they never have before."
"Every month, we receive parts of our salary on our mobile phones. We pay for goods and services, transfer money, withdraw, and make deposits on our mobile phones. And more amazing still, thousands and thousands more in the countryside are experiencing the same thing even in areas without wireline service or ATMs. All of these are made possible by RBAP's mobile phone banking initiative developed under the USAid-supported Mabs program using the GCash platform," he added.
