Is mobile banking worth chasing? That’s a key question facing bankers these days, given the cost of establishing a mobile offering and the accelerated pace at which the mobile landscape is evolving. The short answer is “yes”—if you go about it right.

Mobile phone use in Bangladesh is not a luxury now. Almost half of the country's 160 million population uses mobile phones, but very few have bank accounts. There were lot of talks in the past few years on how the big population could be brought under the banking services via their mobile handsets. The GSM Association (GSMA) predicts that by 2012, nearly 300 million of the previously "unbanked" will be using some form of mobile banking.

“Do microloans work?” strikes Lilian Simbaqueba as an odd question. If they’re administered properly, they should. That’s what her company, LiSim, is in the businesses of doing. Started in 1996, LiSim is a risk-analysis company based in Bogota, Colombia that uses statistics and behavioral analysis to determine the inherent risk in granting credit to a given client. It offers outsourcing services to clients interested in developing credit scoring systems as well as selling software for a client to use in-house.

Mobile phone use in Bangladesh is not a luxury now. Almost half of the country's 160 million population uses mobile phones, but very few have bank accounts. There were lot of talks in the past few years on how the big population could be brought under the banking services via their mobile handsets. The GSM Association (GSMA) predicts that by 2012, nearly 300 million of the previously "unbanked" will be using some form of mobile banking.

The honeymoon with microfinance is over. Since the idea of lending or giving very small sums of money to poor people was introduced to the world by the pioneering Grameen Bank in Bangladesh, the approach has been taken up by many non-governmental organizations, donor agencies and the United Nations as an essential part of their poverty-reduction efforts. Microfinance has provided countless people with access to financial services.

Kredits, a leading provider of software and technology solutions for microfinance institutions (“MFIs”), announced it has entered into bilateral agreements with MFI clients and regulators across multiple regions in order to provide the microfinance industry’s first multi-jurisdictional regulatory compliance software solution. In response to a rapidly evolving regulatory climate, Kredits is proactively meeting the challenge by providing its worldwide base of MFI clients with the advanced reporting and credit bureau support required to cost-effectively maintain regulatory compliance.

Today at the Microsoft Worldwide Partner Conference in Los Angeles, Temenos, the global provider of banking software, launched a complementary go-to-market model using Microsoft technologies to address affordable access to finance in emerging markets. Temenos was also today selected the Microsoft Financial Services Partner of the Year at the Microsoft Worldwide Partner Conference

Sprint Nextel Corp. plans to start a service this year that will allow customers to make purchases with their mobile phones, ahead of a similar initiative from rivals Verizon Wireless, AT&T Inc. and T-Mobile USA.

The Sun is reporting that animal behavior experts have kindly handed out iPads to Gorillas. Amazingly not a SINGLE one of the five tablets which download apps has been broken since being given out at Port Lympne wild animal park three weeks ago.

Electronic payment provider VeriFone has a front seat for what it calls the “gold rush for NFC” – the race to deliver products and services related to Near Field Communication (NFC) technology.

Microfinance USA is the conference where the nation's leading microfinance champions exchange ideas and information that set the agenda for the future of the field. Join the conversation with expert practitioners, top investors, and frontline researchers to explore and expand microfinance in the U.S.

Diversifying your bank accounts can allow you to keep funds for one investment or project in one account, while keeping another for bills and entertainment expenses. An online bank account allows you to transfer funds without having to enter a bank and often can give you competitive interest rates. These accounts also allow you to view and manage you accounts online. Opening an online bank account is a simple procedure.

Breakthrough: Mastercard has created a card that can display your balance and even talk to you, while also doubling as a reward card.

Smart phones are vulnerable to the same virus, spyware, and phishing threats as your home PC, as well as some risks unique to phones. Here's how to protect yourself.

NetSuite Inc., the industry’s leading vendor of cloud-based financials / ERP software suites, today announced the latest social enterprises to benefit from a NetSuite.org product donation. NetSuite.org is NetSuite’s unique corporate citizenship program, which enables growing social enterprises to access product donations of NetSuite’s cloud-based business software service that helps deliver increased productivity, reduced operating costs, and improved organizational flexibility.

World Council of Credit Unions (WOCCU) is the leading international trade association and development agency for credit unions. WOCCU promotes the sustainable development of credit unions and other financial cooperatives around the world to empower people through access to high quality and affordable financial services. WOCCU advocates on behalf of the global credit union system before international organizations and works with national governments to improve legislation and regulation. Its technical assistance programs introduce new tools and technologies to strengthen credit unions' financial performance and increase their outreach.

Credit unions, a small part of Britain's financial landscape which has grown as banks cut back on loans after the credit crisis, aim to raise their profile further after an increase in business last year. "People are increasingly seeing credit unions as a safe and convenient place to save," Mark Lyonette, chief executive of the Association of British Credit Unions, told Reuters on Friday.

The Global Alliance for Banking on Values, a network of the world's leading sustainable banks, announces four new members today from South America, North America, and Europe. The banks join nine founding banks committed to building a better financial future in challenging times.

Kiva, the world's first personal micro-lending website, has teamed with KIEDF (Koret Israel Economic Development Funds) to launch its first and only partnership with an Israeli microfinance institution. This alliance will allow individuals anywhere to make small loans through the Kiva website to Bedouin women of the Negev, Arab Israelis in northern Israel, and other low-income populations throughout Israel.

China Mobile's Nongxintong - or farming information service - launched four years ago. The company is currently focusing on expanding its delivery in China's west and south-west regions. "Building the mobile network and covering most of the country's administrative villages, we realised that there was only a network signal. In rural areas, this is not enough," explains Liu Jing, a local manager for the service at China Mobile.

The Asian Development Bank (ADB) will provide up to $10 million for a private equity fund that aims to expand microfinance and small bank lending to poor, underserved groups across the region.

The Group of 20 Summit scheduled for November in Seoul will provide a forum for a wide range of economic and fiscal issues, ranging from World Bank governance to fossil fuel subsidies.

Omidyar Network announced an $825,000 grant to Praekelt Foundation to support its pioneering use of mobile technology to drive positive social change. Funded through Omidyar Network's Government Transparency investment area, the grant will be used to extend the Foundation's mobile technology platforms across Africa. Built to take advantage of rapidly growing mobile penetration throughout the continent, these mobile platforms will provide the technological foundation and infrastructure for a variety of initiatives focusing on healthcare, education, human rights and government transparency initiatives.

The Economist Intelligence Unit’s Global Microfinance Index ranked Lebanon in 49th place among 54 countries worldwide and in last place among 14 countries in the Middle East and Africa (MENA) in terms of the environment for microfinance.

Lemon Way is an Independent Software Vendor that helps banks build a differentiated competitive advantage with innovating solutions based on mobile devices or TV channels. The software suite Wonderbank enables banks to provide their customers robust, secure, transactional solutions for routine and advanced banking enquiries.

Probanx Information Systems specializes in development of software for the financial institutions, offering multi-currency and multi-lingual banking systems with a large variety of modules, based on the latest technologies. We install and support turn-key international Banking Software and Microfinance Software solutions for retail banks, commercial banks, Internet banks and microfinance banks.

Participants gathered at Deutsche Bank’s Wall Street office for the second day of the Microfinance Impact and Innovation Conference. Panelists included both academics and practitioners, sharing research and experiences from the field. They attempted to tackle the daunting question: how do you design credit products that work for the poor, not against them?

Lemon Way is an Independent Software Vendor that helps banks build a differentiated competitive advantage with innovating solutions based on mobile devices or TV channels. The software suite Wonderbank enables banks to provide their customers robust, secure, transactional solutions for routine and advanced banking enquiries.

Lyon created a system to bring formal financial services to microfinance institutions and poor entrepreneurs via a mobile phone. He believes the new software, to be launched by the organization he founded, FrontlineSMS:Credit, could change the world of microfinance by changing the way the poor interact with the institutions.

The three-day Asian Microfinance Forum 2010 wrapped up bringing to a close three full days of conferences, panel sessions and seminars all of which were well attended by almost 500 delegates from 50 countries who were in Colombo for the event as well as many local industrialists, bankers and other interested parties.

Lots of banks are getting on board with basic mobile banking this year, but there's not been too much innovation when it comes to functionality. A handful of banks are leading the way with widely available capabilities that set them apart from the pack.

Consumer groups are applauding moves by the National Australia Bank (NAB) that are set to save credit card customers up to hundreds of dollars a year. "There are plenty of other tricks and traps with credit cards that need to be ironed out and we would invite the others to do likewise - move before regulation comes in." Whether or not they do is likely to be watched closely by the holders of the more than 16 million credit cards currently on issue in Australia.

Online retailers are spending too much time and money dealing with card not present payments, a new study has found. “It is surprising that UK merchants are still opting to continue with manual reconciliation and patchwork payment systems.”

The announcement was made by a top Nokia executive at the Mobey Forum's 10th anniversary meeting in Helsinki this morning.

Consumers in the Netherlands will be using smartphones as mobile wallets within two years as result of a joint venture between top banks and mobile operators.

All Nokia smartphones released by the company from 2011 will come with NFC (Near Field Communication) technology built in, according to Near Field Communications World (NFCW).

Mobile payment users worldwide are forecast to increase 2.1 percent to 109 million by the end of 2010, a US-based research firm said in a report.

Mobile technology has the greatest chance of delivering financial services to Africa’s estimated 325 million low-income, un-banked people. Examples of African financial innovations abound and the results are being felt across the continent, where mobile phone penetration continues to skyrocket. Dianna Games writes about the success stories and the need for investors to think from the ground up.

On July 1 Open Revolution and Geocell announced the ultimate innovative mobile payment method - MobiPay, which allows you to make purchases, bill payments and person to person money transfers much more easily, more quickly, more safely and more conveniently by mobile phone.

Matthias Omeh, president, National Association of Microfinance Banks (NAMB), on Monday advised microfinance banks to partner with credit bureaux to ascertain the status of their customers.

Unisys is a worldwide information technology services and solutions company. Our 37,000 people help clients in more than 100 countries use technology to seize opportunities, overcome challenges and succeed in the global economy. We offer business solutions led by our expertise in consulting and systems integration, outsourcing, network services and security – coupled with leading enterprise-class server and related technologies.

Misys plc (UK) is a global software products and solutions company and serves customers in the international banking and securities, international healthcare, and UK general insurance industries. Misys employs over 6,000 people internationally. Misys was founded in 1979 to supply computer systems to UK insurance brokers. Now it is one of the world's largest software solutions companies, supplying customers in the banking, healthcare and financial services industries with IT and outsourcing facilities to improve their business processes.

Swiss group, TEMENOS, has over 300 client names worldwide, has systems live in over 500 client sites, operating in more than 100 countries. Founded in 1993, TEMENOS Group AG is a provider of integrated, modular, core banking systems that provides banks with a single, real-time view of the client across the enterprise. TEMENOS delivers 24/7 functionality to the wholesale, retail and private banking sectors, or partnering with central banks on core system replacement. TEMENOS is established as an international leader in the banking software industry. The company has expertise and commitment in projects. Headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland, the company has 34 offices in 29 countries and is listed on the main segment of the SWX Swiss Exchange (TEMN).

Infosys provides a complete range of IT consulting outsourcing services based on strong domain and business expertise and strategic alliances with leading technology providers. Infosys' service offerings span business and technology consulting, application services, systems integration, product engineering, custom software development, maintenance, re-engineering independent testing and validation services, IT infrastructure services and business process outsourcing (BPO). Infosys is a leading global IT organization with over 40 offices and development centers in India, China, Australia, the Czech Republic, Poland, the UK, Canada and Japan.

TATA Consultancy Services Financial Solutions (TCSFS) is a global and innovative company with a strategic focus on the present and future requirements of financial institutions. TCSFS goal is to enable their clients to meet the business challenges of modern-day banking and to achieve and sustain a competitive edge. TATA Consultancy Services acquired the former TKS Group.

Part of the Greece-based group Intracom Holdings established in 1977, INTRACOM IT SERVICES is a provider and systems integrator of technology solutions for banking and financial institutions, covering core banking, treasury, risk management, Phone/Internet/WAP Banking, Call centers, etc. INTRACOM IT SERVICES is an IT services provider in the Greek market and an IT solutions integrator in S.E. Europe and the M. East.

SAP is headquartered in Germany and is a world-leading provider of business software solutions. SAP solutions are designed to meet the demands of companies of all sizes -- from small and midsize businesses to global enterprises.

SAB is a French vendor of core banking solutions with an international presence, mainly in francophile institutions across Europe, Africa, Middle East and the Pacific. Established in 1989, SAB is an independent group that publishes an integrated software package for banking and financial institutions: the SAB solution for front to back office banking operations.

Probanx Information Systems specializes in development of software for the financial institutions, offering multi-currency and multi-lingual banking systems with a large variety of modules, based on the latest technologies. We install and support turn-key international Banking Software and Microfinance Software solutions for retail banks, commercial banks, Internet banks and microfinance banks.

Newton Microfinance Institution is the leading private financial institution in Lao PDR. Their vision is to make sure that every Lao resident not only has access to but also benefits from the financial blessings globally enjoyed.

Welcome to this blog about Microfinance, Innovations and Sustainable Development