DUSHANBE, February 24, 2014, Asia-Plus – The Interagency Working Group on Elaboration of Measures for Development of Payment System in Tajikistan met at the National bank of Tajikistan (NBT) in Dushanbe on February 21 to discuss issues related to introduction of mobile banking in the country.
According to the Tajik central bank’s press center, the first stage of introduction of mobile banking includes determining the list of bank transactions that will be carried out by lending organizations and customers through mobile communications.
The second stage reportedly includes development of transaction technologies and carrying out first transactions, the source said.
We will recall that the issues related to development of mobile banking and further prospects of its roll out in Tajikistan were discussed in Dushanbe on February 6. The event was organized by GIZ and International Finance Corporation (IFC). IFC presented results of a new survey on the spread of mobile banking in Tajikistan and its compliance with international principles and standards.
Mobile banking is a system that allows customers of a financial institution to conduct a number of financial transactions through a mobile device such as a mobile phone. The earliest mobile banking services were offered over SMS, a service known as SMS banking. With the introduction of smart phones with WAP support enabling the use of the mobile web in 1999, the first European banks started to offer mobile banking on this platform to their customers.
Mobile banking is used in many parts of the world with little or no infrastructure, especially remote and rural areas. This aspect of mobile commerce is also popular in countries where most of their population is unbanked. In most of these places, banks can only be found in big cities, and customers have to travel hundreds of miles to the nearest bank.
