Mobile Banking: The Case of Globe G-Cash
With the explosive growth of mobile phone usage around the world, particularly among the low income and rural groups, a range of operations, such as deposit taking, withdrawal, payment transactions, and other conventional banking services, can now be offered through mobile technologies and services. This session will profile the case of Globe G-Cash and how this close collaboration between the banking sector and telecommunications regulators aims at expanding and improving access to microfinance services in the Philippines.
Speaker Profile
Paolo Baltao is the Head for Financial and Government Services of G-Xchange, Inc. (GXI), a wholly-owned subsidiary of Globe Telecom, a leading wireless telecommunications provider in the Philippines. Prior to being the Head for Financial and Government Services, Paolo headed the Overseas Filipino Worker (OFW) Money Remittance Segment from 2004 to 2006, leading the acquisition of international and domestic remittance partners for GCash. Before joining GXI, he served as the Category Manager for Corporate Products and Services of Rizal Commercial Banking Corporation. In his 15 years of experience in product management and business development in the various industries such as the pharmaceutical, banking and remittance, and telecommunications industries, the nature of his work has covered conceptualization and development of technology-based products and services. His experience also includes formulating and implementing marketing and selling strategies of these same products.
Microfinance and the Global Financial Crisis
Like all other financial institutions, MFIs were not spared from the impact of the global financial crisis. Some of the main areas of concern for microfinance service providers, in light of the crisis, include the availability and cost of funding, stability of deposit-taking MFIs, foreign currency depreciation, and various policy responses that undermine sustainable financial access for the poor. In this session, we will try to focus on the key lessons learned from the crisis so far, and use them as basis for developing possible responses that could help MFIs address structural weaknesses and strengthen their systems.
Speaker Profile
Eric Duflos is a Senior Microfinance Specialist at CGAP. Since he joined CGAP in January 2003 Eric has focused his work on policy issues and aid effectiveness. He managed the Microfinance Donor Peer Reviews, the Country-Level Effectiveness and Accountability Reviews (CLEARs), and now CGAP’s work on the broad role of government. Before he joined CGAP, Eric spent seven years in Laos, where he worked with UNCDF/UNDP, the World Bank and the Central Bank to help set up microfinance institutions and a conducive policy and regulatory framework. Eric has also worked for short periods in several countries including Cambodia, Haiti, Indonesia, Mali, Nicaragua, Madagascar, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Vietnam. He holds a master’s degree in management from the Lyon EM and a master’s in economics and international relations from Johns Hopkins University. Eric regularly teaches policy issues at the Turin/Boulder course and gives a course at Sciences-Po in Paris. He has published several articles on the role of government in microfinance, including on the topic of National Microfinance Strategies. A French national, he speaks French and English, and some German and Lao.
Duration:
224
minutes
Date Published: 20 Aug 2009 5:38 PM (JST)
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