Making money fair in Cambodia: ANZ

In Cambodia, there is a limited ability for the poorest in the community to save, make payments, or transfer money securely and quickly. Australia and New Zealand Banking Group (ANZ) has recently launched an inclusive business initiative (see the 5-minute video below) that aims to provide this population segment with the ability to carry out these functions.

Called Wing, the initiative provides payment services to Cambodia's unbanked, about half of the country’s 14 million people, allowing them to perform a range of financial services through mobile phones. Wing account numbers do not have to be tied to a customer’s mobile phone number. This means that the service is also available to the many people who do not own phones but who have access to one via family and friends.

Wing’s branchless banking model is being kicked off with a pilot that will allow some 400,000 textile workers in Cambodia to send remittances to their families living in provincial locations in Cambodia using SMS mobile phone technology at a significantly lower cost than the current 10% transaction fees on the total amount to be transferred. At present the workers often have to give envelopes of cash to taxi drivers to take home to their families in villages that are sometimes up to 80 kilometers away.

Prior to designing their product, Wing performed extensive market research to ensure that they understood the target market and its financial needs. The resultant service was developed in response to those findings. Product development occurred over a 9-month period during which the company performed iterative testing and redesign, mapping their solution closer and closer to the needs of the market.

As outlined in an article on the World Bank's Private sector Development blog titled Mobile banking takes WING in Cambodia, ANZ has been working with the Access to Finance program of the International Finance Corporation in the design and implementation phase of Wing. In the framework of their cooperation agreement, IFC provided technical assistance to Wing on a 50-50 cost sharing basis. Together, IFC and ANZ funded experts who performed market research, developed customer use cases, honed the business plans and financial models, developed a merchant strategy, and established a sales and marketing plan. In addition, IFC facilitated a dialogue with the National Bank of Cambodia (NBC) to make sure the central bank is comfortable with the official introduction of the solution.

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[Brad Jones]

Please note that the link to this video has now changed to http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Js4H8OrDHPQ.