Mobile banking poised to take off in Vietnam’s rural areas

Vietnam’s rural population is still struggling with access to basic financial services. With the high mobile penetration rate, can mobile phones be a platform to address their needs? Yap Far Loon, Business Development Director, Telecommunications at Spire Research and Consulting, shared his insights on the untapped potential for mobile financial services to serve Vietnam’s rural population in The Saigon Times Daily.

According to a Spire report, an astounding 60 million people in Vietnam do not have access to basic financial services. Only 22% of the population – predominantly those residing in urban areas – have access to financial services.

Why are the rural areas being left out? Yap opined that high costs are the main reason. For instance, the cost of installation, maintenance, operation and location rental for Automated Teller Machines (ATMs) alone exceeds VND300 million annually. Moreover, as rural transaction volumes are low, economies of scale are limited, making it even more expensive for the financial service provider.

But Vietnam’s high mobile penetration rate has created the possibility of another platform – mobile devices – for accessing financial services. According to the Ministry of Information and Communications Statistics for December 2013, Vietnam has approximately 150 million telephone subscribers – of which 93% of them are mobile phone users. This implies a mobile penetration rate of over 100%. The 3G network in the country covers up to 20 million subscribers.

Hence, it is high time for service providers to tap into this market. In May 2014, online mobile service company mService joined hands with Vietcombank and VinaPhone to launch a mobile money transaction service known as MoMo. The account number for this service is the same as the customer’s mobile phone number, making the application user-friendly.

If initiatives like this succeed, we can expect mobile e-banking, e-payments and e-commerce to take off among Vietnam’s huge rural population. But to make that happen requires a high level of co-operation amongst financial institutions, mobile network operators and mobile payment processors.

https://www.spireresearch.com/newsroom/media/mobile-banking-poised-to-take-off-in-vietnams-rural-areas/

Comments

China leads e-commerce growth through smartphones

400 million Chinese consumers make online purchases and China’s e-commerce market is set to reach USD1.57 trillion by 2018, making it the world’s largest. As smartphone penetration continues to surge in Asia, online retail is evolving. Will mobile commerce become the dominant mode for online purchases in Asia? Japnit Singh, Senior Director at Spire Research and Consulting, shared his insights in China Daily – Asia Weekly. China’s e-commerce retail sales in 2015 increased by 42.1% to reach USD672 billion. This is equivalent to over 40% of global e-commerce retail sales. As the online retail experience continues to evolve, more purchases are made using smartphones. Growth factors responsible for this e-commerce boom include the rise in demand for imported products due to rising incomes, new online platforms and initiatives by the government. Cross-border consumer e-commerce added up to about USD40 billion (in 2015) – more than 6% of China’s consumer e-commerce in total. ...

Spire appointed Official Research Partner to the BMW Malaysian Open once more

The BMW Malaysian Open has carved a place in the tennis world’s calendar of key events. This year, it was held from 14 to 20 April 2014 at the Royal Selangor Golf Club in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Spire was honored to be appointed as the Official Research Partner of the BMW Malaysian Open for the third consecutive year. In collaboration with the Women’s Tennis Association (WTA) Tour and the Lawn Tennis Association of Malaysia (LTAM), Spire was excited to be a partner to this global sporting event. It witnessed world-class players in action, including Karolina Pliskova, Hsieh Su Wei and Venus Williams. As the Official Research Partner, the Spire Malaysia team contributed its research expertise in developing fact-based insights from spectators, so as to aid the organizers in improving the event for the coming years. The Spire team was thrilled to be a part of this exciting tournament once again. https://www.spireresearch.com/newsroom/events/spire-appointed-official-research-...

Bangladesh – A journey from poverty to development

Equivalent to the combined population of the Netherlands, Germany and France, Bangladesh is home to 160 million people. Although it is ranked as one of the world’s poorest of the 10 most populous countries, its economy grew by 7.1 per cent in 2016, a 30 year record. The country is starting to attract the attention of global companies. Can Bangladesh make poverty history? The story so far Bangladesh’s recent economic upturn is attributed to two major factors: its robust NGO sector and its thriving garment manufacturing industry. Bangladesh exported over USD26 billion in clothing, second only to China. Bangladesh gained independence from Pakistan in 1971 after a devastating war. Just prior to the war, in 1970, a massive cyclone had hit the nation, killing thousands. Today Bangladesh’s GDP per person is USD1,538 in comparison to Pakistan’s at about USD1,470 in June 2016. Some analysts assess that Bangladesh has the potential to emerge as the 23rd largest economy in ...

QE program unveiled for Eurozone

The European Central Bank (ECB) recently took a policy leap by launching its own Quantitative Easing (QE) program – a bond purchasing policy to inject new money to revive the Eurozone’s economy. Will it work? Leon Perera, Chief Executive Officer of Spire Research and Consulting shared his insights in The Business Times – Views from the top section on the effectiveness of the QE program. With the launch of the QE program, the ECB hopes to boost economic growth and check deflation. This will be achieved through the purchase of both government and private sector bonds worth €60 billion from March 2015 until September 2016. Perera commented that, while better than nothing, the ECB’s QE program is small in comparison with the scale of the problem facing Europe. It will most likely have to be increased and sustained for some time before any results are seen. Moreover, the ECB runs the risk of trading short-term quantity for long-term quality of growth. This is due to the reduced ...

The future of luxury consumerism

The global luxury industry is in a slowdown, thanks to China’s weakening economy, instability in the Middle East and decreased tourism in Europe – meaning only 1 percent year-on-year real growth in May 2016. But the face of luxury consumerism is changing as upstart brands show the way in terms of innovation and versatility. Diamond Foundry – a start-up based in San Francisco – creates lab-grown diamonds that are atomically similar to those found in nature. Tech CEOS and actors from Hollywood have invested in the company. This start-up aims to provide an ethical alternative to mining diamonds, an industry that is often associated with negative environmental and social impacts. Will innovation enable the luxury goods industry to adapt to a leaner economy? https://www.spireresearch.com/newsroom/spirethoughts/the-future-of-luxury-consumerism/

The Knowledge to Decide

Search This Blog