Tameer Bank has been able to reach the large unbanked population in Pakistan through the mobile phone, but unlike other mobile schemes – such as Kenya’s M-Pesa – Tameer uses a bank-led model.
If the telecommunications company leads the model, the bank’s role is typically relegated to holding customer funds in trust or providing reconciliation services for the mobile payments. As a microfinance institution, Tameer specialises in providing banking products to the underbanked in Pakistan and uses a commercial – rather than a not-for-profit – business model.
