Telenor Pakistan about to turn into a bank
M'man, Jon Eddy Abdullah.
What’s that, Tech Lahore? Telenor, the cellular telephony company is about to turn into a bank? Surely you’ve finally lost your blooming mind! What utter malarky, Tech! Go take a cold shower!
Well, my learned audience, far from losing his/her mind, Tech Lahore is as sharp as ever. A veritable young whippersnapper, frankly. And the news about Telenor turning into a bank might sound ludicrous, but it isn’t.
Under the now provedly exciting leadership of Jon Eddy Abdullah, Telenor Pakistan has decided to purchase a 51% controlling stake in Tameer Microfinance Bank (TMB). This is obviously not a bank many of us have heard of. And to be blunt about it, the brand or the size of the bank probably had nothing to do with the decision. This is just a quick, inexpensive way of getting a banking license without having to apply for one.
Now, with TMB tucked cosily under his arm, Jon Eddy can be expected to launch a slew of financial services offerings. Telenor will deliver these through their growing network, and it’s pretty clear at this point that nothing is going to stop that little cell phone of yours from morphing into your credit card, your cheque book and your bill payment system. Frankly, it would be surprising if it stopped at that. The fact that this is happening means Telcos will get in the middle of trillions of dollars worth of transactions. Hmm, come to think of it, isn’t that what banks do today? Yes, astute readers, it is. And that’s precisely the point. The bank of the future is the telco of today. Telenor has taken the first step in this direction. Stay tuned, because the others will follow.
Telenor acquires 51 percent shares of TMB
KARACHI: Telenor Pakistan on Friday entered into an agreement to acquire 51 percent shares in Tameer Microfinance Bank (TMB) for $2.5 million (Rs 1 billion approximately) foreign direct investment through a direct rights issue. The proceeds from the rights issue will be used to finance the further development of the bank. The transaction is subject to full regulatory approval. “The acquisition of 51 percent of the shares in Tameer Microfinance Bank is part of our strategy to offer financial services in Pakistan,” said Jon Eddy Abdullah, CEO of Telenor Pakistan. “We are pleased with the deal we have entered. Telenor is a solid partner for further growth, and we have a common view about how financial and telecommunication sectors together can improve customer offerings by combining services,” said Nadeem Hussain, President and Chief Executive Officer Tameer Bank. staff report
brilliant! say hello to microfinance payments through text messages. The model being used by grameen phone (Telenor) and bank in bangladesh. I wonder what repercussions this will have on amaana and genie, though I hear doors have been closed on the latter by the State Bank.
I have a hunch that TPS has a big role to play in this and other such ventures in the 6 odd months to come.
I just noticed that the news item has incorrectly converted Rs. 1BN into USD $2.5M. It should actually be USD $12.5M. They may have dropped the ‘1′…
Hi
Congratulations to team Telenor.
As a student of Accounting & Finance, the good area in this transaction for me is that
Tameer has become the subsidiary of Telenor.
Thanks.
Astonished about the news of Telenor but now all is clear
Thanx 4 such a hot and Latest update
TechLahore just stole this thunder from Babar Bhatti’s telecom blog!
Baan: There are 3 different and non-overlapping concepts:
1. mobile banking
2. branchless banking
3. microfinance
1) Inov8 is a mobile banking product – requires GPRS enabled Java phones, works on Mobilink, has 1-2 banks signed up, and from we understand, mostly a bill payment interface. It caters to high end of the market which has Mobilink GPRS connection, sophistication to understand GPRS/J2ME and a bank account. We really wish them best of luck against their problems with SBP. One can expect a million people using it once they’ve signed up perhaps 10 banks.
2)amaana is a secure payment platform for the un-banked, including a complete core banking transaction processing system. Mobile is 1 interface to the many interfaces to this branchless banking system, and it works on all handsets across all operators. Our trial is documented on youtube.com and commercialization is in process.
It is important we do not confuse the readers and keep the distinction between mobile banking and branchless banking – banking through retail outlets with deposits guaranteed by the SBP. BB has a much larger scope to solve the 90% un-banked problem of Pakistan.
3)microfinance is a group lending concept. MF institutes spend a large percentage of their interest collection from clients on OPEX of branches and service centres. Through the humongous telenor franchise network, Tameer can now save on this OPEX. They can also use Telenor’s relationship with mobile banking service provider (name not being mentioned for confidentiality) to provide several services to MF clients remotely, just like mobile banking does.
I think CGAP needs to better explain to the world the differences (and overlaps) between these 3 concepts.
Farzal – corrections on a couple of points
1. amaana is not a secure platform since they rely on structured SMS for transactions which by definition is not a secured channel
2. Microfinance is not necessarily a group lending exercise. Tameer engages in individual lending , whereas Kashf in Lahore, Grameen in Bangladesh indulge in group lending.
There is also a third option in the market known as Access Mobile Banking Shared Platform which offers the worlds top mbanking and payment platform from FUNDAMO. It is the most secure and mature platform of all that are available. A number of telcos and banks are using the Access Platform.
Great! Now the mobile phone snatchers will ask you to transfer the funds through your Telenor service before they snatch it from you on gunpoint.
That really brilliant idea; now every one carries their bank balance in form of mobile!
stuppied
It is not the telenor acquire the Tameer, one day tameer will acquire 51% share and Nadeem will again President.
Promise by Business Head Punjab ….
Tameer is fail in generating deposits in Punjab, I urge my team to pls generate the deposit to save the bank.
Still the deposit side in punjab is zero we can not survive without generating depoist in punjab ….