Tag Archives: cash management

Implementing ADC projects: What does it take?

Photo credit: Owens BPO

This post is written by Shital Shah, SBI Associate Consultant.

Making sure a mobile money venture is able to weather Death Valley and come out successfully while reaching clients and finding financial sustainability requires strategy, an understanding of the local context, and technical know-how.

SBI’s Alternative Delivery Channels (ADC) team works across regions and focuses on implementing innovative and sustainable projects with financial institutions and technology companies.  Across the ADC projects, SBI’s team of experts focus on any, or all, of the following components, which are really the main ingredients to any mobile banking venture:

  • Strategic guidance, including financial modeling and business planning – by working with the executive management, experts are able to provide business insights and strategic guidance on issues such as regulations and partnerships
  • Agent network management – experts that were involved in building up agent networks elsewhere in the world help figure out the nuts and bolts of channel management, from recruitment, selection, training, to management
  • Cash/float management – managing liquidity with the agents is a critical factor in making the business work, and needs the right policies and procedures
  • Technology – although technology is just one tool within the overall business, it does need to be well integrated and well functioning; the proper guidance can help secure core banking systems, integrate platforms, and meet business requirements successfully
  • Customer uptake – insights through market research, appropriate product development, pricing structures, and effective marketing are all some factors in creating rapid customer uptake Continue reading →

The Palestine Banking Services Company

This post is written by Ahmed Jadallah, SBI SME Resident Advisor, and Andrew Lake, Director of Riskfrontier Consultants. 

As it operates in a cash-dependent economy, the Palestine banking sector has been striving for the last two decades to reduce cash management costs and tackle cash movement obstacles resulting from a challenging political environment.

The banking sector is currently witnessing important shifts in Palestine, as banks started recognizing the growing viability of retail banking services due to having experienced growth in revenues and profitability. In turn, this led to the need for developing creative banking products, and adopting modern technologies for the delivery of such services to targeted existing and new consumers.

In Palestine, achieving this objective requires a joint effort to build the required infrastructure to strengthen the electronic payments industry. The mechanism proposed by SBI to achieve this strengthening is the formation of a jointly owned company, aimed at servicing the banking sector as a whole while leveraging economies of scale to reduce dependency on cash.

Continue reading →