Islamabad, 15th October 2009. Telenor Pakistan and Tameer Microfinance Bank together have announced the launch of easypaisa, a uniquely convenient and safe way for everyone to carry out financial transactions. easypaisa users will have the freedom to make bill payments and send and receive money at thousands of outlets and in addition manage their bank accounts over their mobile phones. easypaisa combines the best from the financial and mobile sectors, offering the first branchless banking solution of its kind in Pakistan and neighboring countries.
(left to right) CEO Tameer Microfinance Bank, Nadeem Hussain, Governor State Bank of Pakistan Syed Salim Raza, CEO Telenor Pakistan, Jon Eddy Abdullah and Director Telecom Ministry of Information Technology & Telecommunications, Mudassar Hussain in a group photo at the easypaisa launching ceremony.
Presiding over the easypaisa launch event, Governor State Bank of Pakistan, Syed Salim Raza in his address emphasized government’s focus on promoting financial access in the country. He said, “Helping people to get access to financial services is central to improving their livelihood. Branchless banking has been used internationally as a successful tool to reach customers who cannot be served by conventional branch-based financial services. That is why State Bank has been very supportive of innovative synergies in this field, a prime example of which is easypaisa by Tameer Bank and Telenor Pakistan.”
Director Telecom, Ministry of Information Technology & Telecommunications, Mudassar Hussain highlighted the critical role mobile industry has to play in providing financial access to the un-banked. He said, “The total life of mobile industry in Pakistan is less than 20 years while formal banking channels have been around for some 60 years. However, interestingly, in comparison to more than 90 million mobile subscriptions, the number of bank accounts is less than 30 million. The Ministry is of the view that this presents an immense opportunity for the mobile industry to add value to the financial sector and serve the un-banked. We have been actively supporting the consultation process and hope that easypaisa becomes a resounding success story for the industry and country.”
Chief Executive Officer, Telenor Pakistan, Jon Eddy Abdullah called easypaisa a revolutionary solution. He said, “easypaisa will allow users across the board to access convenient and secure financial services. In an environment where only 12% of adult population is formally served with financial services, easypaisa will promise tremendous financial empowerment. It will provide opportunity for everyone to utilize well-priced, secure, and efficient financial services at the corner store without opening a bank account, or through ones own handset with a Tameer Bank account depending on the transaction type. The inclusion into the general economy will create opportunities to save, pay for services more efficiently without the loss of productivity, and to utilize more advanced financial instruments in the future.
Chief Executive Officer, Tameer Microfinance Bank, Nadeem Hussain talked about how branchless banking can help the low-income customer segment currently served by Tameer Bank. “Tameer has been a pioneer in scalable retail micro finance operations with initial focus on lending. Tameer has always embraced new technologies to lower operating costs. Mobile
phones – along with other technologies and banking agents are beginning to offer the opportunity of giving financial services to the many millions of people and low cost who have never had a bank account.”
Telenor Pakistan & Tameer Bank’s easypaisa portfolio, initially launched with Bill Payment solution, is scheduled to come up with services such as money transfer, mobile wallet accounts, cash deposits and withdrawal facilities in near future. The services are for everyone offering innovation, freedom, security and convenience.
The Telenor Group is an international provider of high quality tele, data and media communication services with mobile operations in 13 markets across the Nordic region, Central and Eastern Europe and in Asia. The Telenor Group is among the largest mobile operators in the world with over 168 million mobile subscriptions and a workforce of more than 40,000. Telenor Pakistan is 100% owned by Telenor ASA and adds on to its operations in Asia.
Tameer Bank, a fast growing microfinance bank licensed by State Bank of Pakistan in August 2005, rated A- (single A minus) and A-2 (A two) by JCRVIS, has a current network of 31 on-line branches and 35 on-line sales & service centers across Sindh and Punjab. It has given new complexion to the microfinance sector by induction of innovative technology driven financial services to the under-served population through choice of bank tellers, ATM machines and Point of Sale (POS) terminals. Its product set includes loans, deposits, overdrafts, insurance, payments and domestic remittances. Since inception, Tameer has disbursed more than Rs 3.5 billion with an active portfolio of Rs. 1.4 billion and over 70,000 loan customers with delinquency trend of under 2% supported with a deposit base of more than Rs 940 million. The total customer base of Tameer has crossed 145,000 with staff strength of 1,100.
Biz Wire 
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