IAP is an initiative which aims to provide mobile based financial services to remote communities that have limited or no access to banking services.
Smart said that it has set up Smart Money Centers in remote, underserved communities, to spur entrepreneurial opportunities and economic growth.
These Smart Money Centers will allow island-based micro-finance institutions (MFIs) to perform money transfers using Smart Money--the world’s first reloadable payment card linked to a mobile phone.
Aside from mobile money transfers, the IAP enables island residents to perform e-load purchases, bill and utility payments and other micro purchases, all via mobile.
The program was piloted in 2008 in Polillo Island, Quezon Province when the island’s financial channels were cut off.
The expansion of this program is being done in partnership with Seed Finance, a credit provider to MFIs and small enterprises and several MFI Network Organizations like MFI Councils in Mindanao.
Through Smart Money, MFIs are able to provide mobile-based financial services to about 200,000 households or close to 1.8 million Filipinos who inhabit the remote islands activated by Smart.
"The IAP has helped us position ourselves as a provider of enabling platforms that will help MFIs better serve their clients in even the most remote communities," Danilo Mojica, Smart Wireless Consumer Division head said.
He said that they are hopeful that through the Smart Money-powered mobile phone, unbanked and underbanked Filipinos may gain access to funds and opportunities that will help improve the way they live.
A recent study conducted by McKinsey & Co. for GSMA and CGAP stated that while mobile penetration in the Philippines is about 80 percent, banking penetration only stands at 35 percent, thus leaving 21 million mobile subscribers without bank accounts.
Smart’s share of the mobile market is over 50 percent, with 45.3 million subscribers on its network as of June 2010.
