Pakistan’s MCB Launches ‘Socially-connected Mobile Wallet’
Pakistan’s Muslim Commercial Bank (MCB) has launched what it describes as the world’s first socially-connected mobile wallet, MCB Lite, which is backed by Visa.
The launch, which took place in Lahore, included a briefing for media and stakeholders at which MCB’s head of digital banking and business development, Qasif Shahid, said that Pakistan has been at the forefront of the branchless banking, which is taking the developing world by storm.
These are exciting times for the mobile financial services and digital banking professionals, he added. The boundaries of telecommunications and banking – Pakistan’s two most developed and competitive industries – are blurring as companies from either side move into branchless banking in their quest for growth.
“Through our previous work in the mobile and digital payments space and working closely with Visa, we have realised that the road to going viral, attaining scale and changing behaviour hinges on creating payments solutions that are; bank, telecom and device independent, free of charge, interoperable and support frictionless onboarding processes,” said Shahid.
“MCB Lite is built exactly on these four cardinal principles and we hope it revolutionises the payment behaviour of the masses in a top-down approach.”
In its publicity for MCB Lite, the bank comments: “The mobile wallet, simply put, is just like your real world wallet except that it’s intangible and in the ‘cloud’. It goes everywhere with you, yet you don’t have to carry it. You can load money in it digitally through your existing bank account and link it to your existing telecom provider and smart phone without any need for switching your phone/bank/telecom operator.
“Once the money is in, you can make payments free of charge, buy top-ups, pay bills, shop online, enjoy discounts and much more from anywhere in the world through a combination of the mobile wallet and Visa Card.
“People can also invite their friends, family and business partners to join-in by logging in and evoking the ‘pass-it-on’ function within the service. Sending invites through the wallet is as easy as sending a friends request on Facebook or any other social media.”