Grameen-Obopay to offer mobile banking service to Mumbai, Bangladesh

Bangladesh's Grameen Solutions and US-based mobile payment service provider Obopay Inc have announced a tie-up to use cellphone technology to deliver banking services to Mumbai and Bangladesh.
The alliance will begin delivering its services in October this year and work initially in India's commercial capital and Bangladesh, the companies said in a statement issued on Tuesday.
"The Grameen-Obopay initiative will provide access to affordable financial services including cross-border remittances, money transfer, payment, savings and credit accounts", the statement said.
India has the second highest number of households without any bank account in the world (135 million households) and at the same time it is adding eight million mobile connections every month. Therefore, the scope for the Grameen-Obopay Bank initiative is huge, said Obopay Chief Executive Carol Realini.
Mobile technology can effectively deliver financial services to billions of underprivileged people, the companies said.
Under the tie-up, Grameen Solutions, founded by Nobel Laureate Muhammad Yunus, will provide the domain expertise, while Obopay will offer the technology platform.
"We are looking forward to working with Grameen Solutions to bring truly powerful mobile banking services to the people, Realini said.
Grameen Solutions Chief Executive Kazi Islam said, "We carefully evaluated globally available mobile money service providers with a view to identifying a partner that fits with our vision and mission. Obopay is clearly that partner and we look forward to maximising the global potential of mobile financial services with them."
"By using a technology that is already pervasive, the mobile phone, we will clearly be able to have a dramatic impact on global poverty", he added.
Mobile-based financial services will bring more power to the poor, Yunus was quoted as saying in the statement.