Realizing the Potential of Branchless Banking: Challenges Ahead

This paper from Ignacio Mas further develops a broad vision for financial inclusion sketched out by Mas (2008), where payments can be easily made through an electronic network. What makes visioning such a payments utility possible is the technology we have today, which can be used to bridge distances, close information gaps, contain settlement risks, and generally reduce transaction costs. Now the challenge is to develop attractive services that engage customers and workable business models that enable decentralized, largely private, institutions to build this payments utility.