15 May 2015Working Paper Summaries

Mobile Money Services-Design and Development for Financial Inclusion

by Rajiv Lal and Ishan Sachdev

What separates successful mobile money deployments from unsuccessful ones? Research in ten emerging markets shows key similarities in many aspects of the successful deployments, including the regulatory structures set up by their central banks and regulators, their corporate structures, the guiding principles of their business models, and the way in which they went about building their agent networks and driving adoption. Although specific product offerings varied, successful deployments all addressed a major pain point for their target population, were attuned to the local context in terms of demographics, infrastructure, and economics, and were easy for consumers to understand and use.

Author Abstract

Mobile money services are being deployed rapidly across emerging markets as a key tool to further the goal of financial inclusion. Financial inclusion, the development of novel methods to enable individuals at the base of the pyramid to access formal financial services and become part of the formal financial system, is considered a key prerequisite for lifting these populations out of poverty and for driving economic growth.