Case Study
Policies and Regulations for Expanding e-banking to the Poor
Enabling regulatory environment for improving outreach of electronic financial services to the poor
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8 pages
This paper argues that electronic banking (e-banking) has the potential to expand the outreach of microfinance to large segments of the population, provided the legal systems regarding electronic transactions are appropriately framed.The paper:
- Describes the advantages of and progress made by electronic banking (e-banking);
- Divides the various factors affecting the development of e-banking and e-commerce in developing countries into infrastructure, service and application layers, and makes policy recommendations for each layer;
- Explains the development of ICT in Pakistan and its impact on financial sector growth.
The paper concludes that:
- New and innovative channels such as banking and e-commerce have great potential and promise to extend a wide range of financial service to the poor;
- For the poor to benefit from ICT, there is a need for public private partnership vis-A-vis policy intervention and investment that embraces infrastructure, service, application, technology and human resources;
- Policies that can have a great impact in facilitating e-banking and e-com services to the poor should be directed towards:
- Attracting private sector investment in ICT,
- Facilitating accessibility and cost effectiveness of ICT services and equipment,
- Computer literacy and general awareness,
- Transaction security and consumer protection,
- Conflict of laws.
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