Banking the Underserved: New Opportunities for Commercial Banks

Micro finance Institutions have led the way and shared emerging insights on financial services needed by the poor, and how these could be provided. But rapid scale up is needed to provide financial services to millions (billions) of unbanked and under-served customers. To address these gaps will require significant resources, diverse suppliers (especially `for profit private sector), approaches and partnerships. Do the banks have a commercial interest to enhance the quantity, quality and range of financial services provided to the unbanked? Fortunately many financial institutions are already pursuing these commercial opportunities. Drawing on case studies from six countries and secondary literature, this paper explores the business case for commercial banks in serving this huge market. Cases presented include:

• Sogebank/ Sogesol, Haiti;
• Banco Wiese Sudameris, Peru;
• Hatton National Bank, Sri Lanka;
• Stanbic Bank, Uganda;
• Khan Bank, Mongolia;
• Capitec Bank, South.