Kathmandu Post

MONEY»

Branchless banking: Reliability a concern

KATHMANDU, APR 05 -
Krishna Hari Banskota, revenue secretary at the Ministry of Finance (MoF), on Tuesday said although branchless banking is a good concept for providing financial services to rural people, there are several challenges facing it.

At an interaction on ‘Enhancing Access to Financial Services through Branchless Banking’ organised here, Banskota said winning users’ confidence is a major challenge amid the prevailing trend of seeking traditional ways for financial access.

“Our society is yet to mature and it generally takes some time for people to accept new ideas. People still seek traditional ways such approaching local pawnbrokers for their financial needs,” said Banskota. “So establishing trust is a must for running branchless banking.”

The interaction was held by the ministry in association with National Banking Training Institute with an objective of enhancing people’s access to financial service. “Our objective is to enhance common people’s excess to financial services via branchless banking,” said NBTI CEO Sanjib Subba. “Participants discussed creating a common network platform for conducting branchless banking. As it requires a huge investment in technology, the participants focused on finding a way for moving ahead together.”

Several banks have already started banking services via cell phones and mobile banking on vehicles. Laxmi Bank, Kumari Bank, Nabil Bank, Global Bank, Bank of Kathmandu and Everest Bank, among others, are providing minimum banking services through mobile phones. Kist Bank, Everest Bank and Sunrise Bank use vehicles for catering their services.

The workshop identified various government payment services and remittance as potential areas where the branchless banking could be involved.

“However, participants expressed concern about various issues such

as reliability of services, trust and replacement of paper money,” said Subba.

Posted on: 2011-04-06 09:05

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