Serving the underserved is the new frontier for mobiles ,  Nokia is doing it with their Life Tools providing market information , entertainment and education to the rural farmers in India and Indonesia at $1.00 a day , they are even working with OBOPay to launch Nokia Money in India in collaboration with Yes Bank to capture the non banking population which is a substantial share in India’s 1 billion plus market . Nokia is not going to stop here , according to Olli Pekka there are 1.4 billion bank accounts in the world and 4 billion mobile phones so there is a lot of room to grow especially in developed markets .

In my recent discussion with Mr Gerhard Romen Director Nokia Financial Services , Pakistan is a lucrative market for Nokia Money but still it will take time for the product to launch in the country . 

Kudos  to Telenor , a Norway based Cellular services provider , to realize the potential of the under banked in Pakistan and launch their Easy Paisa suite of services .

Telenor Easy Paisa started humbly with providing a facility to pay Utility Bills at Easy Paisa Outlets powered by Tameer Micro Finance bank of which Telenor is the main stake holder ,  I bashed Telenor on where is the use of mobile in all these transactions , if I cannot pay my bills through my phone the service is of no use for me , however it did provided a service to the salary men to go and pay the bills even on Sunday from any nearby Easy Paisa Outlet .

In the second phase Telenor Easy Paisa shifted to money transfer but still there was no mobile phone involved except  sending a SMS with payment retrieval code , again non existent use of a mobile but a service for the masses to easily send and receive money across the country , now my driver can easily send money his mom in Abbotabad without involving anyone in between .

Today Telenor announced the third phase a working Mobile Bank where I can store money , transfer money , pay my bills and even my friends all from my cell phone .

Introducing Easy Paisa Mobile Account , a revolutionary service where I , an executive in a company in my real life , to a sweeper in street can all have a ‘Virtual Bank Account’ always accessible , it’s safe and secure and convenient to transfer money and even get physical cash from 5000 Easy Paisa Outlets across Pakistan .

When I talked to Nokia about Nokia Money , they told me that the market they are targeting does not have hightech smart phones , they are the people using Series 40 and even Series 30 phones so they don’t expect them to use data services for money transfer instead built the platform on simplest of communication form SMS .

Telenor banked on the same thought and Easy Paisa Mobile Account is not dependent on any particular phone so I with my E72 and N900 or even iPhone can use it and the person on the street with his old but reliable Nokia 1110i can use it too which brings out mass appeal for service in the market  .  It works across the network ( for now the service works on Telenor only )  and any one with any phone can use it brining in mass appeal through ease of usage .

Becoming  a Easy Paisa Mobile Account holder is also very easy , all you have to do is to have a Telenor SIM Card ( issued in your name ofcourse)  CNIC and can register from any Telenor /  Tameer  Bank Franchise or outlet .  You need to submit your customer information , photograph ( will be taken there digitally )  sign and affix thumb print on account form ( very useful for the ‘illiterate’ in terms of education but literate in terms of mobile usage )  get the fee receipt and with a verification call from bank ( takes up to 3 hrs)  you will be all set with your ‘ Virtual Bank Account’

Your account number will be the 12 digit Mobile Account number, which actually is your own Telenor phone number plus 1 randomly generated check digit so it could be 0345-555111-9 where 0345 is code for Telenor , 5551111 your number and 9 is the random check digit so all you have to remember is the check digit along with your cell phone number to run transactions , again very useful for the under banked segment of our  market . 

For security -  Transactions also require a 5 Digit numeric Pin Code , determined by the customer at account creation and like all ATM passcodes had to be kept secret as not to be forgotten as no transaction could be run without it .  For further security , the same security protocols are used as ATM Card and used GSM encryption .  Incase the mobile is lost or stolen , without the PIN no one can access your account so your money stays secure and the customer can get a replacement SIM and start using the account again after changing the PIN Code.

In case someone forgets the PIN , well all it takes is calling the help line and registering the request and verifying your credentials when you receive a call and this time the PIC will be generated by the system. 

The convenience is not only the phone , Telenor Easy Paisa Mobile Account also web site access with addditional features as scheduling club payments etc which reoccur every month including your Telenor monthly line rent etc  but for now Easy Paisa offers the follwing payment options

• Utility Bills  -  Electric , Telephone and Gas
• Money Transfer to another EAsy Paisa Account
• Money Transfer to a person ( requires their CNIC number ) and they can collect money off the counter .
• Scheduled payments such as line rent etc
• Cash Deposits
• Cash Withdrawals
• Transfers In and Out from Tameer bank account
• In future expect payment of tickets , at restaurants etc through your mobile phone

If you thought that’s easy , the usage is even simpler , just dial  *786# and a menu  will come to choose the transaction you want to use . ( Details will be posted later )  

None of these services are free , with fees ranging from Rs 23.20 including charges and FED on up to Rs 1000 transfer from one Easy Paisa Account to Another up to maximum of Rs 278.40 for payment of Rs 8000 -  10,000 to a non account holder from Easy Paisa account so the charges are not that exorbitant . 

There is a limit of maximum Rs 60,000 in the account and Rs. 10,000 per day, Rs. 20,000 per month and Rs. 120,000 per year in and out transactions as laid by the SBP . 

SenseApplied thoughts on Easy Paisa Mobile Accounts are

First , we are loving it , it’s the dream of making mobile payments we had in Pakistan which Telenor had made a reality , although we expected Nokia to move in . 

The best we like is the convenience , one *786# could do it all , our only question is the service available in Urdu?

It provides a secure medium for the under banked market to transfer money at minimum the costs and take care of bank timing and visit hustles .  Imagine a Rickshaw ./  Taxi driver in Karachi , who earns Rs500 a day , at the end of the day instead of keeping his saving in a metal tin hidden under his mattress where it could be easily lost or stolen , he can stop by any Easy Paisa franchisee and get the money transferred to his account  , skipping out on bank lines and cashier’s intimidating stares.  He needs to send the money to his parents half way across the country , one single message and within seconds his money will be transfered .

Way to go Telenor , now sign up some restaurants who will also offer us some good discount on transfer via Easy Paisa and you got me onboard . 

Last week , Telenor in conjunction with Tameer Microfinance bank , in which Telenor is a majority share holder , introduced Telenor Easy Paisa . a service to ease the hassle of utility bill payments.

When I first heard of Easy Paisa , my first thought was that finally a cellular company has realized their potential and is introducing Mobile Payments concept in Pakistan where  I can manage my finance , make payment through my cell phone ,  but when I read the PR I was a  disappointed .

Why disappointed ? Easy Paisa was not about managing my bank account through my phone , it was not I can make micro payments to my friends even my grocery store through my phone , it was simply a bill payment but where mobile phone use is optional .

Telenor with it’s vast outreach through it’s franchisee and retailers is providing Tameer Bank an outlet to collect on bill payment be it Gas , Electric or other utilities .  that’s it , Telenor , as a friend puts it ,  has taken the line from outside the bank to outside the grocery store and their franchisee  , where I can pay my bill through CASH and get my bill payment receipt and optionally get the confirmation by SMS on my cellphone no matter my service provider .

That’s Easy Paisa , Telenor first please realize that the people you have targeted are not standing in line to pay their bills anymore , it’s our peons who pay it and even if ‘we’ the middle to upper middle class goes to pay the bill , we don’t stand in line , we pay it through ATM , NADRA Kiosk and even through our bank where we sometimes stand in a short line inside the air conditioned premises .  Market these services to my peon not to me , and I’m serious , market Telenor Easy Paisa in slums of Pakistan where the working class don’t get the time to go to bank , advertise in the Rs 2 newpaper which the ‘lower and lower middle class’  reads , advertise in regional languages not in English in a full page of Dawn.  Market it to those for who  don’t even dare to enter a bank as it’s too intimidating for them, this is your real market . 

Why am I suggesting this to Telenor ?

I come to the second part of my topic ‘ Could be made better ‘  .  When attending the launch of Telenor Easy Paisa , it was said that it’s just the begining , there is more to come , I suggest to Telenor to listen to the Keynote speech by  Miss Carol Realini CEO OboPay now part of Nokia Money .  Her concept of payments is simple , mobile money for micro payments . 

Example , Take a day laborer who makes RS 500 per day ,  his daily expenditure is Rs 450 a day and he saves Rs 50 a day .  Till now , he was saving it in a box in his house as firstly he is too intimidated to enter a bank branch , secondly the cost of opening an account will be more than he can afford with issuance of cheque books and all .  With Telenor Easy Paisa , every evening , when he gets paid he deposits his saving of Rs 50 into his Telenor Easy Paisa account , managed by Tameer bank . at any Telenor  Franchisee or authorized retailer . As soon as he deposits the money , he gets a confirmation SMS on his mobile ( Telenor could charge his Rs 50 for the first time to issue him a Telenor SIM with Rs 25 balance )  .  At the end of the month , he needed some money to pay his family in another city , he sends an SMS to Telenor Easy Paisa and instantly gets his balance and with another SMS sends the money he desires to his parents residing in another city and instantly receives the confirmation.  His parents , say in Lahore goes for grocery shopping and needed cash , so they go to a Telenor Franchisee / Authorized Retailer and take cash out against their own Telenor Easy Paisa account and Telenor charges 1 % of the transaction as fee or they can make payment to their grocery store by Telenor Easy Paisa .

The benefits of the above scenario are  numerous

• For the laborer , he does not have to go to a bank where his Rs 50 account will not be entertained
• Security as instead of collecting his life savings in a box which can be easily lost or stolen , it’s safe and secure in Tameer Bank
• Ease of use , with one SMS he can check his balance and make payments
• Fast , with one SMS , he can transfer money to anyone with  Telenor Easy Paisa account

That’s what the consumers now demand , ease of use , safety and swift transactions .

• For Telenor /  Tameer bank , the benefits will be
• Hundreds of thousands of Micro Accounts , tapping  the huge unbanked market of the country .
• Although the individual deposits value will be small , the volume of deposits will be  huge enhancing the overall value
• With the wide acceptance of mobile payments , the money will stay with the bank only titles will change and it will further increase as more deposits will be made
• The 1 % cash withdrawal cost will cover the financial charges associated with transactions.

I once had a tweet discussion with Carol Realini of Obo pay and she herself agreed on the potential of Pakistan , it only depends who taps it first , will it be Telenor with their Easy Money already in place , Mobilink with their Genie , Warid which may enter the playing field with their UBL and Bank Alfalah connections or  Nokia itself with their Nokia Money .

Who ever comes first , count me in as a potential customer as I want micro payments , yes the middle and upper classes will also benefit from it , I can deposit Rs 100,000 to my Telenor Easy Money account and pay the house staff through mobile , I can pay my bills through my phone without giving it to my peon , the possibilities are endless and waiting to get exploited