Mexican Issuers Leverages Canadian Gift Card Software

ePaynews.com

Jun 20 2008 : Mexico’s Mercadotecnia, Ideas y Tecnologia (MIT) is launching a gift card program using software developed by Toronto-based Smart Processing Solutions.

MIT will use the SmartIssuerPro system to provide gift cards which will be issued by its clients.SmartIssuerPro enables independent sales organizations (ISOs), financial institutions, retailers and processors to issue and manage prepaid, debit, gift, and loyalty card programs in-house.MIT provides transaction switching services for Mexican banks, retailers and payment networks.

Smart Processing Solutions provides processing and switching software for banks, ISOs, processors, acquirers and retailers. In Canada, its software is used to drive a network of around 11,000 non-bank ATMs.

ePaynews.com - the payment news and resource Center

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American Express is OPEN

Chris Brogan shows how American Express' OPEN FORUM website works and has positive influence on how businesses are run.


by Chris Brogan
June 21, 2008 OPEN Forum

It’s interesting to see an implementation of content networks the way I first envisioned them in May 2006.

I recently heard from Federated Media’s James Gross about American Express’s OPEN Forum. Basically, it’s a project where AMEX through Federated has a blog area that aggregates interesting business content, with the mindset of gathering a conversation in a sponsored area.

Mentioned as a place to find insight from business experts, it’s essentially a way for AMEX to spread its brand across some select blog content (with the bloggers’ permission).

I asked James what the plan was: The primary goal was for OPEN to start identifying, curating, and participating in a media landscape that was constantly changing. They had done a lot of work with other publishers, but it was always on the publishers domain and like most microsites, tended to be lightly trafficked and not converting people to the OPEN forum.

Not to mention, with what we call, “the de coupling of media” surveys were finding that most SMBs were using blogs and other forms of social media far more than major publishing brand’s SMB sites. It’s interesting to me, because it’s the other way around from how we perceive our blogs.

I think it’s definitely a way to build a content network that would be more useful to end readers. It’s not that we don’t want more traffic to our blog, but that there are ways this content can be made more useful to end readers, by being curated by others in interesting ways. That’s why we use Creative Commons. That’s why we use RSS. It’s the plan.

Click here to read entire post American Express is OPEN | chrisbrogan.com

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Anticipated Demand for Prepaid Cards among Latin America Unbanked

Paynews.com

Jun 17 2008

By 2015, 324 million unbanked Latin American consumers could have general-purpose prepaid cards, according to a study by NovoPayment.

The Miami, Florida- and Caracas, Venezuela-based firm develops prepaid card programs for the unbanked in Latin America.

NovoPayment says that by 2015, annual general-purpose prepaid card spending by unbanked Latin American consumers could reach US$214 billion a year. Prepaid cards will bring access to point-of-sale, ATM, mobile and online card transactions to consumers who today rely almost exclusively on cash, NovoPayment says.

The study by NovoPayments covers 15 countries across Latin America including Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Guatemala, and Venezuela. NovoPayment says that Brazil, followed by Mexico, will be the biggest general-purpose prepaid card market in the region by 2015.

In Brazil, there will be 109.9 million general-purpose prepaid cards in 2015, accounting for US$22.15 billion of spending, NovoPayment says. In Mexico, there will be 64 million general-purpose prepaid cards in 2015, accounting for US$54.34 billion of spending.

“Our study discovered a significant number of consumers with the income, access to infrastructure, and spending behavior to be viable users of prepaid general-purpose cards,” says NovoPayment CEO Anabel Perez. “Around 57 percent of the Latin American population has the need, the capacity, the means, and the necessary economic and social incentives to warrant prepaid cards.”

ePaynews.com - the payment news and resource Center

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BBK makes remittance easy for NRIs

MANAMA: Bahrain-based BBK has signed an agreement with Bahrain Indian International Exchange Company (BIIECO) to provide all its non-resident Indians (NRI) banking customers the opportunity of seamless remittance.

Customers will now be able to remit funds from their BBK account in Bahrain to their BBK or any other bank account in India.

Present at the signing ceremony held at the BBK head office in Manama were BBK assistant general manager - international banking division Ashish Sarkar, NRI business head Mudit Mathur, BIIECO chairman and managing director Khalil Ebrahim Qamber and general manager Lakshmi Narasimhan.

"BBK is one of the leading retail banks in the kingdom and we have a strong base of NRI clients in Bahrain and Kuwait," Mr Sarkar said."With this tie-up we will now provide them with a service to remit money back home more efficiently. In contrast to the traditional remittance services available, this would be a more convenient and trustworthy method as the client is directly dealing with their bank instead of a third party."

Our commitment at BBK NRI business remains, to serve the Indian community, through our own branches via such alliances with the best-in-the-industry partners.

"Our endeavour is to offer a wide range of quality products and services to our clients to cater to their growing needs with the BBK quality of service," he said."This is a proud moment for us at BIIECO to partner with a leading bank like BBK. This tie-up will enable us to reach out to the vast NRI community and increase our volume of business," Mr Qamber said.

http://www.gulf-daily-news.com/Story.asp?Article=219257&Sn=BUSI&IssueID=31076

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First Bank Steps Into Chinese Market via Cooperation with Sumitomo Mitsui

The Chinese remittance market is starting to open.

Taipei, June 12, 2008 (CENS)

First Commercial Bank has successfully stepped into the Chinese banking market, despite the absence of business points there, thanks to the cooperation with Japan`s Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corp.

Chang Chao-shun, chairman of First Bank, pointed out yesterday (June 11) that the bank has successfully provided yuan-denominated loans to a number of Taiwanese-invested enterprises in China for working-capital use via the Chinese branches of Sumitomo Mitsui Banking. The bank, though, still plans to set up its own Chinese branches, according to Chang.

The business is part of the cooperative venture between the two banks following their signing of the memorandum of cooperation on Dec. 17, last year. During a meeting reviewing the achievements of the cooperation last week in Taipei, ranking officials of the two banks looked into the results of their cooperation in the fields of corporate banking, greater China business, syndicated loan, forex remittance, cooperation between overseas branches, credit card, trust custody, forex trading, fund maneuvering, consumer banking, risk management, and personnel exchanges.

An official of First Bank noted that both parties have attained good results in the fields of client recommendation, syndicated loans, forex remittance, financial trading, loans for Taiwanese enterprises in China, and personnel exchanges. Thanks to the assistance of Sumitomo Mitsui, First Bank, for instance, has solicited substantial amount of banking business for Japanese individuals and enterprises in Taiwan.

The official reported that the bank will intensify its cooperation with the Japanese partner, especially in the core businesses of greater China market, domestic and international syndicated loan, wealth management, and marketing, this year.(by Philip Liu)

CENS.com – The Taiwan Economic News

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Microfinance institutions can facilitate remittances

From: Manila Times web edition

Sunday, June 15, 2008

By Maricel E. Burgonio, Reporter 

Microfinance institutions can facilitate remittances Microfinance refers to the provision of financial services to low-income clients, including the self-employed. It also refers to a movement that envisions “a world in which as many poor and near-poor households as possible have permanent access to an appropriate range of high quality financial srvices, including not just credit, but also savings, insurance, and fund transfers.”

Microfinance institutions can take the form of cooperatives and other self-help groups, rural banks, and small economic formations. They are now emerging as remittance channels and can effectively play this role, as they are present in many rural areas and poor people’s enclaves.

Lately, money transfer agent PetNet Inc. has decided to tap microfinance institutions to expand its remittance market.

Lorenzo T. Ocampo, PetNet president, said PetNet has partnered with microfinance institution Alalay Sa Kaunlaran, Inc. (ASKI) to widen its market in Regions 1, 2 and 3 that ASKI covers.

“In the partnership, Aski’s clients can remit through PetNet. These areas are underserved,” Ocampo told reporters.

PetNet signed on Wednesday a memorandum of agreement (MOA) with ASKI. Under the partnership, ASKI’s clients may channel its remittances through PetNet.

ASKI has 21 branches in the three regions, all of which are areas with high demand for microfinance loans. PetNet, meanwhile, is a money transfer agent of Western Union, has 200 locations nationwide.

Rolando Victoria, ASKI’s executive director, said its loan portfolio increased by 20 percent year-on-year to P240 million as of May. It also has a capital base of P63 million.

ASKI provides P5,000 to P150,000 worth of micro loans with 3 percent monthly interest rate to its clients.

“There is strong demand for microloans such as in agricultural loans and for small businesses,” he said. It also provides microinsurance with only P20 paid every week in exchange for P120,000 insurance coverage.

ASKI also plans to use make use of ATM services in releasing loans to their clients.

Besides ASKI, PetNet also signed a MOA with GSIS Family Bank in April.

The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) has been encouraging banks to engage in microfinance, a flagship program for poverty alleviation.Microfinance loans posted double-digit growth last year as more banks increased their participation in microfinance lending.

Amando M. Tetangco Jr., governor of the BSP, earlier said microfinance loans grew 12 percent to P6 billion last year.About 229 banks are into microfinancing, with a total client base of 780,000.

The Manila Times Internet Edition | OFW TIMES > Microfinance institutions can facilitate remittances

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The Ethics of the Bottom of the Pyramid

Hat Tip: World Bank

It looks like Ethical Corporation has caught on to the ethics of serving the bottom of the pyramid. An article in their most recent newsletter discusses opportunities in the vast bottom of the pyramid market in Latin America. About 360 million people in Latin America fit into this category. So far, local companies have left multinationals in the dust:

A third noteworthy trend is the leadership of national companies over their international peers. Micro-insurance firm Paralife in Mexico, Peruvian financial intermediary Cajasur and many of the other high performers in the index are local firms. With the bulk of their local market being low-income consumers, such firms have learned to search out opportunities among the “majority” by default.

Multinational companies, by contrast, often lack the experience, the local relationships, the market understanding and often the vision to trouble themselves with poor customers. Yahoo, Microsoft and PepsiCo feature among the big-brand laggards in the index.

What's it going to take for the multinationals to catch on?

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