Institute for Money, Technology & Financial Inclusion

In 2011, sixty-five percent of India’s population did not have access to a bank account (Global Findex 2011). India has the second largest financially excluded poor in the world with more than half of its population considered as financially underserved At the same time, India is one of the fastest growing markets for mobile phones. Given the rising mobile phone usage in the country, M-Banking has a great potential for enabling financial inclusion of the poor. India has attained near universal telecom access with one of the lowest–cost retail distribution networks. Among the myriad M-banking services currently underway, EKO’s Simplibank offers one of the most promising initiatives in mobile money operating on a low-cost banking platform. Launched in 2007 through a partnership between the start-up company EKO and the State Bank of India (SBI), this mobile money service initially operated as a pilot project in the cities of Delhi, Bihar and Jharkhand. By 2011, EKO had captured a wider consumer base as a business correspondent of SBI through its new product for domestic remittances. EKO partners with a network of agents—chemists, grocers, airtime vendors—to provide banking services to people with no access to formal bank accounts.This paper explores the everyday use and effects of EKO mobile banking. It discusses findings from a recently concluded study of 160 customers, 20 customer service points (CSPs)/agents, and key functionaries of EKO in Delhi.