Extending Financial Services with Banking Agents
Banking agents are retail vendors, lottery outlets, and post offices-trusted local establishments that can double as a kind of bank branch for their customers, processing everything from bill and pension payments to deposits, withdrawals, and money...
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| Format: | Brief |
| Language: | English |
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World Bank, Washington, DC
2012
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| Online Access: | http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/2008/04/9470958/extending-financial-services-banking-agents http://hdl.handle.net/10986/9523 |
| Summary: | Banking agents are retail vendors,
lottery outlets, and post offices-trusted local
establishments that can double as a kind of bank branch for
their customers, processing everything from bill and pension
payments to deposits, withdrawals, and money transfers.
Banking agents' lower set-up and running costs promise
to help banks and microfinance institutions reach more and
poorer people living far from the nearest branch, with more
financial products, at lower cost, than traditional
microfinance or banking channels. Banking agents process
transactions with point-of-sale (POS) card readers, barcode
scanners, and sometimes personal computers that connect with
the bank's server using a dial-up or other data
connection. The clerk at the retail or postal outlet
collects and disburses cash and, in some cases, opens bank
accounts for new clients and fills in credit applications.
The retail outlets earn a portion of the transaction fee.
Some generate so much business from handling these
transactions that they dedicate an employee to operating the
POS device. Some banks use management companies to identify,
equip, train, and support banking agents and to assume all
liabilities for the cash they handle. These intermediaries
are compensated with a portion of the transaction fees. |
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