Taking Banking Services to the People: Equities Mobile Banking Unit

This paper discusses the features and success of the mobile banking unit developed by the Equity Building Society. Some of the key features of this scheme are:

• Delivers products and services that customers desire;
• Provides mobile banking facilities to customers who live and work in remote, rural areas;
• Uses mobile banks for public relations and marketing purposes;
• Structure:
  • Each mobile banking unit is attached to an Equity branch,
  • A village satellite is established and is served once or twice a week by the mobile banking unit,
  • Customer data is downloaded at the beginning of each day from the bank server, and staff, cash and armed security are transported to the satellite,
  • At the end of the day, the mobile unit returns to the hub branch and transactions are downloaded.

As per the paper, Equity's experience suggests that:

• Technology can be used to deliver a range of services in rural areas and donor support can accelerate the process;
• Convenience, accessibility and liquidity are valued by clients;
• Although these units are profitable, there is scope for growth;
• Clients were positive about the ability to transact locally, but were wary about the transaction fee, although they realized that it was expensive for Equity to provide the service.

The paper concludes by stating that Equity needs to further enhance its mobile banking service in order to meet the challenges posed by other banks.