Around the world, banks, mobile network operators, and others are using innovative ways to make financial services more accessible and affordable for the poor. 

These new banking services, what we call “banking beyond branches,” are built by leveraging things that already exist, like neighborhood retail shops and mobile phones, and are capitalizing on pre-existing customer relationships.

We want to be sure we know about the more committed, successful players who are taking financial services to the poor on a broad scale, striving to make the economics work for savings.

The GSMA Mobile Money for the Unbanked (MMU) program tracks at least 90 active mobile money deployments alone. Models that do not rely on the mobile phone, but rather on cards and through point-of-sale devices, have been less closely tracked and monitored on a global level, although CGAP has recently launched a Branchless Banking Database that will change this.

The CGAP Technology Program and other partner organizations also document insights and lessons learned across all types of banking beyond branches models. Nevertheless, we collectively lack a way to systematically identify and profile innovative schemes that are making progress to expand financial inclusion.

To recognize these players, we are issuing a call for service providers around the world to tell us about their successes. We seek to showcase two categories of success. The first, the Bridges to Cash showcase, will recognize players who have built a dense and sustainable network of cash merchants where people cash in and cash out conveniently from their electronic accounts. The second, the Digital Piggy Bank showcase, will recognize players who successfully market the account for reasons beyond making payments—those that can most likely lead to safe places to save.

Together with the World Economic Forum, the GSMA MMU Program, and CGAP’s Technology Program, we look forward to getting the word out and showcasing successful deployments.