Monday 30 January 2012

Agent Banking? Apa Tu?

Some of you might have noticed the advert below by Bank Simpanan Nasional.

This is another initiative to ensure more Malaysians have access to basic financial services. Due to geographical and logistic issues, financial institutions are facing difficulty to establish physical presence in each corners of Malaysia. Now, with agent banking framework, financial institutions are allowed to appoint qualified agents to conduct basic financial services with unserved customers on behalf of the financial institution.

A guidelines will be issued by BNM to ensure this initiative will be implemented safely, efficiently and effectively and more importantly will safeguard the interest of consumers.

BSN has just started theirs and the Government has set a target of 5,000 agents nationwide. But I'm not sure whether the target is for BSN or for the financial sector.

I've read somewhere that some people in Sarawak had to spend two to three days to the nearest town in order to perform banking transactions.

I believe this effort, coupled with existing physical branch, internet banking and mobile banking would facilitate the aspiration of financial inclusion.

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