The conference is taking place right here on the blog, no registration is required. Just post your comments using the “Leave a reply” option at the bottom of each thread.

This conversation is moderated by Aleksandr-Alain Kalanda, Chief Executive Officer of Opportunity Bank of Malawi.  Daryl Skoog, Chief Technology Officer of the Opportunity International Network, will also be participating.

When my team at Opportunity Bank first started considering m-banking back in 2007, there was no other m-banking system in the country.  Some banks were considering it, but in a very limited way where current customers could just check balances over their mobile phones.  We were very excited about a much bigger vision – a vision to bring our services and products to unbanked people (especially in rural areas) via their phones.  We decided to create our own system that was successfully launched in May of this year.  We are happy with our system but it took longer and was more expensive and complicated to implement than we had expected.

I’ve spoken with many of my colleagues in microfinance around the world about this topic and many find themselves in the same position I was in a few years ago. They are very excited about the potential of m-banking but there is currently no service in their country that they can easily link into.  Based on my experience, I would recommend that MFIs make sure they have substantial financial, technical and human resources before going down this path.  Specifically, some of the pre-requisites should be:

•    Proven track record to implement complex technology-based projects
•    A strong core banking IT infrastructure that is able to handle large volumes of data flow
•    Substantial financial resources to pay not only for the technological solution but also for the human resources, the agent network and a significant marketing campaign.

In order to start the discussion, here are some questions I’m interested in hearing your thoughts on:

1.    For all those MFIs like us who are in countries without an existing m-banking service, what approaches are you considering?

2.    Have any other MFIs started building an m-banking service on their own?  What have your experiences been?

3.    The paper discussed some alternatives to MFIs building a service on their own, especially the option of working as a group with other MFIs to combine financial and technical resources to launch a service.  Is anyone interested in pursuing this approach?

4.    For those MFIs who have decided not to build an m-banking service on their own, are you considering other ways of using phones to improve customer service (e.g., for clients to receive information, loan officers to track info, etc.)?