Banking the unbanked using prepaid platforms and mobile telephones in the United States

The rapid growth of mobile phone usage and the continuous rise in wireless coverage fuel the expectations that access to financial services trough mobile phones could transform the way financial services are provided. The emergence of new and more efficient business models, can potentially resolve supply inefficiencies that explain the large unbanked population that exists in the USA, much larger than in most developed countries. Nearly 40 million US households (approximately 73 million people) are financially underserved (CFSI, 2007), of which 15 million households (approximately 28 million people) are totally unbanked. This problem is explained by the non adequacy of the value proposals offered by financial institutions to the demands of the US customers. The areas of poor alignment refer mostly to the design of products and the marketing and distribution networks used. To resolve these misalignments, this paper will argue that business models based on prepaid cards as products and mobile phones as transactional and distribution channels could be used in order to close the supply gap. We will call the business model proposed based on prepaid products and mobile phones mobile banking, since these two elements are the basis of the business model used companies such as Smart Money and G-Cash in the Phillipines, Wizzit in South Africa and M-Pesa in Kenya.prepaid platform; unbanked; financial services; mobile phones; prepaid cards;

The Bill of Lading in an Era of Electronic Commerce: Legal Developments and the Reform Options for Nigeria

One of the pervasive effects of the advancement in information and communication technology is a radical shift in the means of conducting business transactions. With the digitalization of the global economy, business transactions are increasingly conducted in an electronic medium. The bill of lading, as the most important ocean transport document, has, in response to the needs of the times, passed through many phases of development to its present electronic nature. The problem however, is adapting the challenges of electronic commerce to the old contractual legal order. For the bill of lading, the challenge is the replication of all its traditional functions in electronic settings. Achieving this requires well-established electronic and legal infrastructure. This thesis evaluates the present electronic bill of lading regime in Nigeria with particular reference to the positions in Canada and the United Kingdom and discusses the reform options open to Nigeria in addressing these challenges

E-Banking in Rural Area - Recent Trend and Development: A Case Study

This paper discusses recent trend and development of e-banking (banking though Internet) for small and community banks in rural areas through a case study. The applications of e-banking of several local banks in rural areas are investigated and examined. The research objective is to investigate the trends and level of prevalence of on-line banking (i.e., e-banking) focusing on some emerging issues and challenges. Managerial implications are discussed with suggestions for future research

Digitalization of Maritime Transport Documents : a study of the interplay of public rules and private norms amid social changes

The digitalization of maritime transport documents has became the chokepoint of promoting the automation level of the shipping industry. The lack of stable expectation is, among other things, the main reason that preventing international seaborne trade participants to apply digitalization solution. A harmonized legal framework worldwide would be the first step towards achieving stable expectation of applying electronic maritime transport documents. By employing the doctrinal method and the functional method of comparative law, the book draws a landscape of electronic law today and examined the effect of public international legislation. The empirical study suggests that actors across branches have developed workable standards towards the use of electronic documents by introducing compatible bylaws. The interactions between these private actors and their bylaws provide a possibility to achieve legal unification and self-evolvement of law on the global sphere. Deducting from the empirical results, the book proposes a private regulatory system as an alternative for achieving legal unification for the digitalization of maritime transport documents

E-mail Communication for Provisional Sentence Summons

Traditional rules of evidence deny the admissibility of data messages on the mere ground that it is digitised. The South African Electronic Communication and Transaction Act (ECT) was enacted to enable the courts to admit data messages. South African legislation in this regard has followed a similar approach taken by the United Kingdom, the United States, Canada and the Model law. The use of electronic documents as evidence in court initially posed a number of conceptual challenges to the traditional statutory and common law in South Africa. On a close reference to provisional sentence summons in civil courts, South Africa has not yet amended the rules of civil practice to accommodate modern technology, for example, electronic discovery. The success of provisional sentence summons as one of the civil procedures to recover a debt is highly dependent on the liquidity of a document. Clearly, the authors of the definition of a liquid document may not have anticipated the development of technology to the extent that the traditional paper can be replaced completely by the electronic document. This paper seeks to discuss the challenges that may be faced by the courts when determining the admissibility of e-mail communication for the purpose of granting provisional sentence in South African civil courts. The ECT Act excludes liquid documents such as cheques and promissory notes. Therefore the focus of the paper is to discuss whether the requirements of a liquid document for purpose of provisional sentence summons can be met through the use of an e-mail evidence and the challenging aspects in that regard.Â