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SMS banking, top on new ANZ boss agenda
Robert Matau
While Norman Wilson, Australia New Zealand Bank’s new chief executive for Fiji will not say it outright—ANZ is positioning itself to grab a significant portion of the banking sector in the Asia Pacific region.
With the successful piloting of Short Message Service (SMS) banking in Cambodia and rural banking in Fiji passing the acid test with flying colours, ANZ wants to unleash its blue banner on their rival Pacific newcomer, Bank South Pacific.
One of the ways they will do that is through SMS mobile phone banking system called WINGS, which is popular in Cambodia.
While BSP comes in with its PNG experience in SMS banking where customers use mobile phones to make deposits or withdrawals, Wilson said ANZ would be introducing a similar technology first in PNG, probably next year, before it comes to Fiji.
BSP has thrown the gauntlet to its Pacific rivals (ANZ and Westpac) with its own claim to being the major banking group in the Pacific with assets exceeding K9 billion and nearly 3000 employees.
They claim to be the best capitalised bank operating in the Pacific with a ratio of common equity to total assets of more than 20%. This ratio is an industry measure of balance sheet strength and at 20%, BSP says it is more than twice its peers in the Pacific region.
While trying to avoid any controversy on BSP claims, Wilson said BSP had used one particular measurement, “but if you were to examine many other measures, I think without doubt ANZ is the largest bank in the region in terms of number of countries covered, number of staff and other categories.
“I see the region as very much having a blue background—the ANZ colours—with quite a lot of red from Westpac and increasingly a few splashes of green,” he said.
“Now those splashes of green certainly make it more competitive and keeps us on our toes.
“But I can assure you for the Pacific as far as I know it’s still blue in banking terms.”
While he acknowledged the great opportunities arising from the LNG project in Papua New Guinea, Wilson said this would be more beneficial to Fiji than threats to its economy.
In his initial observations of the region, he said Fiji is still the hub of the region. And it looks like microfinance competition is set to dominate the industry in the Pacific, which can only augur well for those who live in remote areas.
“We are in 12 Pacific countries, we have four regional hubs of which Fiji is one, 59 branches, 243 ATMs and over 2000 staff.
“ANZ Fiji itself has 16 branches, 75 ATMs and over 1000 EFTPOS terminals in circulation in the market
“So we are not only proud to be the only provider of rural banking services in Fiji, but we are also proud that aside from the six teams serving 471 communities and schools, we have the widest coverage in this country (Fiji),” he said.
Wilson, who comes to Fiji with 30 years experience in international banking, said: “It’s not about being the biggest but about being the best and that is what we strive to be in this region.
“We strive to make sure the Pacific keeps up with the rest of the world in technology advances.
“ANZ as a bank is trying to differentiate itself from the other three main Australian banks by focusing on being a supra-regional bank.
“We have been expanding outside Australia and the Pacific towards Asia and we have already been successful in this and the target is for ANZ to drive 20 percent of its income from the Asia Pacific region by 2012…and we are almost there.”
Mobile phone banking to take off in Samoa
Commercial banks, microfinance institutions, telecos, civil society organisations, government officials and donor agencies in Samoa now have a better idea of what mobile banking can offer to the islands nation.
This was made possible through an information exchange focusing on mobile phone banking and remittances that was organised by the Pacific Financial Inclusion Programme (PFIP) in partnership with the Central Bank of Samoa (CBS).
PFIP is a Pacific-wide programme helping provide sustainable financial services to low income households. It is funded by the United Nations Capital Development Fund (UNCDF), European Union, AusAID and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and operates from the UNDP Pacific Centre.
Accessing financial services over one’s mobile phone is often referred to as “m-money” and can allow users to make deposits, withdrawals and transfers directly from their mobile phones.
Leasi Scanlan, Governor of the Central Bank of Samoa, who officially opened the event stated that financial inclusion has the potential to play a very important role in Samoa’s economic development.
“The introduction of mobile banking in the domestic economy will be hugely beneficial. It will allow better financial access to our low-income community in the rural and isolated areas as well as to improve and speed up our payments system,” said Governor Scanlan.
He emphasised the Central Bank of Samoa’s new role as a champion of financial inclusion in Samoa.
The Central Bank of Samoa will be represented at a regional workshop in February, in Vanuatu to discuss how it can best formulate policies that are most supportive of inclusive finance initiatives like m-money in Samoa.
Tillman Bruett, PFIP Project Advisor and international expert on m-money, presented on the potential for m-money in Samoa.
“Mobile banking is very relevant to Samoa as it allows financial services to be offered to rural and low income people that previously had limited or no access to them. Mobile banking increases the level of financial inclusion in the country,” said Bruett.
“Mobile banking decreases the cost of financial services, and this is very important to Samoans who receive a large amount of income from international remittances,” he added.
The purpose of this informal information exchange was to help prepare Samoa for the imminent mobile money solutions that are expected to be introduced into the domestic market well before the end of the year.
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