VIDEO: How democratizing payments levels the playing field between rich and poor

MoneyOnMobile chairman and CEO Harold Montgomery and director Jim McKelvey discuss how the proliferation of feature phones and smartphones in the global unbanked and underbanked population, coupled with improving mobile banking capabilities, is extending the frontiers of banking far beyond its previous boundaries.

For the entirety of banking’s history there has been an imbalance between the services available to the wealthy and those who are not. Even in the 21st century, living in certain countries or communities has afforded a certain percentage of the global population access to superior banking facilities (or even banking facilities at all) through proximity to physical bank branches that will only accept customers with a certain level of wealth due to high overheads.

The enhancement of digital banking capabilities has completed altered this equation.

Mobile technology penetration in lower income and rural unbanked communities is high, meaning that mobile banking can act as a bridge to the unbanked and underbanked, offering access to financial instruments for payments and savings that they could not before.

In India the unbanked and underbanked population is vast, offering both a commercial opportunity to financial services who can provide these people with banking tools, as well as a tremendous potential to do social good.

By offering those with little wealth the opportunity to bank and make payments through mobile, financial services are bringing financial instruments to every demographic of society for the first time.

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