MobiCash Bangladesh (Model 4: Build on GSM airtime distributors)

by Ignacio Mas and Mike McCaffrey
Jun 16, 2015
1 min

MobiCash would like to develop a dominant agent network at the national level. However the issue remains that every agent it invests in is allowed to offer direct services for any other organisation in the market.

Digital finance was really catalysed in Bangladesh in 2011 when Dutch-Bangla Bank (DBBL) and bKash launched their services in May and July respectively. Since then, these providers have managed to grow at incredibly robust rates that have set them apart in a competitive field containing 28 licensed providers. The telecoms providers cannot obtain licenses for any digital financial services beyond rudimentary bill payments and ticketing services. However they do sell access to their channels (USSD, SMS etc.) over which many of these digital finance systems operate, and are still looking at ways they can play a greater role in the digital payments value chain. To read through the case study, please click here.