Credit Agricole Egypt has announced that it will be expanding its mobile banking services, the Middle Eastern News service Bawaba reported on Tuesday that the company would increase their mobile banking services to include SMS alerts.
Bawaba reported that customers would be able to receive short text messages periodically or following major events, which includes notifications for withdrawals, transfers and the maturation of securities.
Mobile banking could revolutionise banking in the developing world. In 2010, the Financial Times reported that 70% of the population in BRIC countries – Brazil, Russia, India, and China – didn’t hold bank accounts. The vast majority does, however, have mobile phones.
The case is the same for North Africa. Egypt has an estimated 73-million mobile phone subscribers, while Morocco has more than one cell phone for each Moroccan. In small towns and cities, mobile banking could provide access to financial services absent before.
Investors have already caught onto this trend. The Private Equity firm Actis completed a full buyout of the Egyptian microchip maker Mediterranean Smart Cards Company in the hopes it would have a foothold in the mobile banking market.
In 2010, the Consultancy Arthur D. Little estimated the number of customers using mobile banking would reach 290 Million by 2015.
Jahd Khalil
