eBay shows interest in RP microfinance

The chairman of the world’s leading electronic commercial and online auction site was in the Philippines recently to learn more about the rural banking industry’s mobile phone banking initiative.

Pierre Omidyar, chairman and founder of eBAY met in Cebu recently with the proponents of the Microenterprise Access to Banking Services (MABS) Program, as well as several rural bankers, and G-Xchange Inc., to see how it could be involved with the mobile phone banking initiative of rural bankers.

The MABS and rural bankers focused on how mobile phone banking expands financial products and services to more microfinance clients here in the Philippines as well as the potential in other parts of the world.

MABS Program chief of party John Owens shared updates on its mobile phone banking roll out, as well as the results, experiences, and challenges encountered.

There are now 39 rural banks with over 350 branches that are accredited to offer mobile phone banking services utilizing G-Xchange, the GCash platform of Globe Telecommunications.

The MABS Program is a joint undertaking of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and implemented by the Rural Bankers Association of the Philippines (RBAP). It assists rural banks to develop their capability to profitably provide microfinance services to microentrepreneurs. MABS worked closely with the support of Globe Telecom’s G-XChange to rollout mobile phone banking services and mobile commerce solutions for clients of rural banks.

Pierre Omidyar was joined by representatives of Omidyar Network, Unitus Foundation, and PayPal.

eBay has more than one million people rely on the site as their primary or secondary source of income, and more than 200 million people trust strangers with every transaction, finding common ground where none seemed to exist before.

Omidyar Network makes investments as well as grants in areas that leverage market-based, collaborative approachesincluding microfinance.

Unitus envisions a world where microfinance is available to every individual. It provides capital investments and capacity-building consulting, to help empower organizations “to scale and provide life-changing financial services to dramatically more of the world’s working poor.”            – Ted Torres