Group items tagged

M-PESA Tips Tips Safaricom investigates all reported cases of fraud or attempted fraud on the network; and our dedicated Fraud team works together with the relevant authorities to seek legal address where appropriate. Fraudsters are known to use tactics that take advantage of customers; they require you to provide information or do something yourself.

Check M-PESA balance When you perform an M-PESA transaction, you will receive a text message that confirms your transaction and tells you your new balance. You can also check your M-PESA balance by going to “My account” on the M-PESA phone menu.

Your M-PESA PIN is used to protect the money in your M-PESA account. You have to key in your PIN before you can perform any M-PESA transactions, so choose a PIN that you can easily remember. Use a PIN that is not easy for other people to guess, and do not share your PIN with anyone, not even Safaricom staff. You can change your PIN at any time by going to ‘My account’ on the M-PESA phone menu. 

Kenya BismartEfficiency & Fraud Management

M-Pesa is a virtual banking system that provides transaction services through a SIM card. Once the SIM has been inserted into the card slot of the mobile device, users can make payments and transfer money to vendors and family members with SMS messages. Users with no bank accounts can access the numerous M-Pesa outlets distributed across the country. The money that needs to be stored is given to the kiosk attendant, who transfers the amount in digital form to the user’s M-Pesa’s account. Cash collected from M-Pesa is deposited in bank accounts held by Safaricom. The bank accounts serve as regular checking accounts and are insured up to a maximum of 100,000 shillings (or $1000) by the Deposit Protection Fund. M-Pesa provides receipts as proof of transaction. For a transaction to take place, both parties have to exchange each other’s phone numbers because the phone numbers act as account numbers. After settlement, both parties receive an SMS notification with the full name of the counterparty and the amount of funds deposited or withdrawn from the user’s account. The mobile receipt, which is received within seconds, helps to promote transparency for all individuals involved in a transaction.

Across the globe, smallholder farmers lose between $50 billion and $100 billion annually, often from natural disasters, but reportedly only 1% is insured from these accidents. As an example, in Feburary 2019, the company made several payouts to farmers in Kenya as poor rainfall caused large amount of crop failure.

Jason Schapiro, WorldCover Lead Engineer, said “Our algorithms are specifically calibrated to rainfall events by region and crop type, automatically triggering instant payouts to insured farmers through mobile money services like M-Pesa.”

A free app available for any smartphone, SnapScan works almost like a pocket ATM linked to the user’s debit or credit card account. Instead of handing over a card, customers scan a unique SnapScan logo posted at the cash register with their camera-enabled phone. They enter the amount, type in a pin code (or use touch ID) and a few seconds later the vendor’s phone chimes with a confirmation sent by SMS. It’s quick, painless, and entirely safe, says Ehlers. SnapScan is backed by Standard Bank, one of South Africa’s biggest banks, and uses cutting-edge fraud protection technology. More to the point, he notes, it means that vendors never have access to actual credit card details. “That means no one is noting down your number so he can go shopping later,” says Ehlers.

It’s been so long since 30-year-old Cape Town entrepreneur Kobus Ehlers last used his wallet that he’s not even sure where it is. “My car maybe?” he says as he reflexively scans the cheerfully decorated offices of his startup, SnapScan. When it’s pointed out that leaving a wallet in a car in a city infamous for break-ins and carjackings may not be a good idea, he shrugs. He probably doesn’t even have the equivalent of five dollars in it, he says. “I never use cash. Credit cards are over. There are much better ways to pay for things.”As the co-founder of one of South Africa’s most successful electronic payments apps, Ehlers is of course expected to use his own product. But the real reason he isn’t worried about his wallet is because Cape Town is a city seduced by the idea of cashless and cardless transactions, in no small part because of his company’s success. “You can literally wake up in the morning, buy a cup of coffee, go to your dentist, have lunch, pay your bills, take a taxi, go out for dinner, and donate to your favorite cause without using cash or a card,” says Ehlers. “And in none of that is there any risk of your card details getting stolen, or you getting mugged for your cash.”

It’s been so long since 30-year-old Cape Town entrepreneur Kobus Ehlers last used his wallet that he’s not even sure where it is. “My car maybe?” he says as he reflexively scans the cheerfully decorated offices of his startup, SnapScan. When it’s pointed out that leaving a wallet in a car in a city infamous for break-ins and carjackings may not be a good idea, he shrugs. He probably doesn’t even have the equivalent of five dollars in it, he says. “I never use cash. Credit cards are over. There are much better ways to pay for things.”As the co-founder of one of South Africa’s most successful electronic payments apps, Ehlers is of course expected to use his own product. But the real reason he isn’t worried about his wallet is because Cape Town is a city seduced by the idea of cashless and cardless transactions, in no small part because of his company’s success. “You can literally wake up in the morning, buy a cup of coffee, go to your dentist, have lunch, pay your bills, take a taxi, go out for dinner, and donate to your favorite cause without using cash or a card,” says Ehlers. “And in none of that is there any risk of your card details getting stolen, or you getting mugged for your cash.”

The probability that a customer would incur financial losses in financial transactions conducted using Fintech is referred to as financial risk particularly when these losses would have been avoided if the same transactions had been conducted on a conventional platform (Keong et al., 2020; Razzaque et al., 2020). Financial risk can also be incurred by the financial service provider thereby distorting the operating budget of the firm. An example of a financial loss according to Khalil and Alam (2020) is when the process of launching a Fintech service has taken a longer time than planned thereby translating to an increase in the total cost of implementation. The prevalence of financial risk has heightened due to the nature of digital technology employed by Fintech, which could lead to recurrence in financial losses driven by electronic fraud (e-fraud) (Keong et al., 2020). These authors also listed other causes or drivers of financial risk as factors related to budgetary exchange framework, currency misrepresentation, and additional exchange fees that accompany the preferred value. 

A whole range of companies within the banking and FinTech industries are starting to explore ways through which they can take advantage of the electronic ledger technology that powers cryptocurrencies, such as Bitcoin

A whole range of companies within the banking and FinTech industries are starting to explore ways through which they can take advantage of the electronic ledger technology that powers cryptocurrencies, such as Bitcoin and Ethereum. This distributed system stores data chronologically in segments known as “blocks” which allow for the information to be processed and transferred almost instantaneously. Among the benefits of the blockchain technology, that make it so attractive to FinTech companies and other large institutions, is the lowered risk of fraud since the technology is notoriously difficult to hack, its speed and the fact that it eliminates intermediary steps between parties in a transaction.

the regulator of FinTech in Ghana is the Bank of Ghana. The Act states that the Bank of Ghana shall have overall supervisory and regulatory authority in all matters relating to payment, clearing and settlement systems.

According to Section 3 of the Payment and Services Act, 2019 (Act 987), the regulator of FinTech in Ghana is the Bank of Ghana. The Act states that the Bank of Ghana shall have overall supervisory and regulatory authority in all matters relating to payment, clearing and settlement systems. As a result of the emergence of FinTech solutions, a lot of complexities have been introduced requiring the Bank of Ghana’s focus to understand and supervise FinTech activities effectively.

Purposeful effort will be required from regulators to shape the future of FinTech and push it in a productive direction in Ghana. It is hopeful that with the introduction of the FinTech and Innovation Office of the Bank of Ghana, there would be regular updates to the licensing requirements of FinTech companies that would ensure adequate compliance with international best practice and also encourage more entrepreneurs to set up FinTech companies in Ghana.

In addition to this, motor insurance providers have had to contend with cases of double insurance, fake insurance certificates, and stolen insurance certificates. Research carried out by Bismart showed that 12% of insurance policies do not exist in the underwriters’ databases even though the motor vehicle owners have paid for their premiums. 22% of the motor vehicle insurance policies surveyed cannot be validated.

Digital financeAs the global economy recovers from COVID-19, one particular area of focus for FinTech is financial inclusion. According to the World Bank, there are currently around 1.7 billion unbanked individuals worldwide, and FinTechs will be central to efforts to integrate these people into the global banking system.Doing so will help to mitigate the economic and social impact of the pandemic. According to Deloitte, FinTechs, in strategic partnerships with financial institutions, retailers and government sectors across jurisdictions, can help democratise financial services by providing basic financial services in a fair and transparent way to economically vulnerable populations.Digital finance is also expanding in other areas. Health concerns in the COVID-19 era have made physical cash payments less practical, opening the door to an increase in digital payments and e-wallets. Though cash use was predicted to decline in any case, COVID-19 has hurried that decline, due to concerns that handing over money can cause human to human transmission of the virus. According to a Mastercard survey looking at the implications of the coronavirus pandemic, 82 percent of respondents worldwide viewed contactless as the cleaner way to pay, and 74 percent said they will continue to use contactless payment post-pandemic.In addition, improved ‘know your customer’ services are required to counter the rise in digital fraud and cyber crime since the beginning of the outbreak. As more of the global economic and financial system continues to move online, cyber defences will become even more crucial to protect data. Security-conscious FinTechs are designing their products with this in mind – even if face-to-face meetings and processes do return. Given the rising reliance on technology, digital transformation will be a primary focus for FIs in the months and years ahead. Whereas previous efforts to integrate technology may have been limited in scope, many FIs are awakening to the fact that in order to deliver an efficient, effective and sustainable banking service, they must adopt a more holistic approach to digital transformation, which includes utilising FinTech.

‘KYC’ is one of the most important terms in FinTech, as ‘knowing your customer’ is a regulatory requirement for all financial institutions. The main goal is fraud prevention and constraining the ability of certain users who do not meet given acceptance criteria. Traditionally of course, this was done entirely in person, with account holders visiting their banks with the relevant ID documents. But for the past years, KYC has been moving increasingly into the digital domain. This move has brought a vast range of benefits to users and FinTech providers alike, but a number of challenges remain. Below, we outline some of these and present you with ways in which to combat them if you’re looking to set-up, or improve your digital finance platform, or to improve your customer experience.

The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step! After twelve years of the startup journey, Cairo-headquartered fintech company Fawry has reached a unicorn status (that is, now worth over a billion dollar!), the first ever by any fintech startup in Egypt and the first ever by any African tech startup going through an IPO (Initial Public Offering) on African soil. Jumia, the Africa-focused ecommerce startup did this in 2019, but that was on the New York Stock Exchange. Interswitch, the Nigerian payment company, also did it last year, but it needed extra funding from VISA to make that happen. 

New technologies, like machine learning/artificial intelligence, predictive behavioral analytics, and data-driven marketing, will take the guesswork and habit out of financial decisions. "Learning" apps will not only learn the habits of users, often hidden to themselves, but will engage users in learning games to make their automatic, unconscious spending and saving decisions better. Fintech is also a keen adaptor of automated customer service technology, utilizing chatbots to and AI interfaces to assist customers with basic task and also keep down staffing costs. Fintech is also being leveraged to fight fraud by leveraging information about payment history to flag transactions that are outside the norm.

The complete suite of services to help your business scaleOnline Payments Accept online payments from Visa, Verve and Mastercard in over 40 currencies. All transactions are PCI DSS compliant, 3D Secure enabled, and processed through an SSL encrypted channel.

Business LoansTraditional sources of financing are rigid, demand collateral, and do not fit your business flow. Take your business to the next level with up to ₦20 million uncollateralized flexible repayment loans.

Funds Transfers & OverdraftsNever let your business run dry again with Optimus. Reliably transfer funds at cheaper rates than the banks and keep your business afloat with an Overdraft when you need liquidity.

Machine learning is a critical component of this process, as it allows us to enhance our predictive ability to better identify these qualifying customers. As a result, we are making significant strides towards our goal of creating the world’s leanest and lowest-cost banking infrastructure. This helps our bank partners offer loans at the lowest possible rate, and it helps our customers to achieve higher-yield savings. We’ve proven that our model works. Twelve million customers in Africa and Asia have saved or borrowed on the JUMO platform, and roughly 70% of these customers are micro and small businesses. We’re incredibly proud of our progress so far – but we know there’s more we can do.

To test our approach, we looked at Ghana, running new and advanced machine learning algorithms on signals associated with a pool of lending applicants. The goal was to identify combinations of signals — from income size and deposit frequency to mobile phone battery life and mobile wallet transaction patterns — that would serve as more accurate indicators of likely fraud than existing models.

Big DataIn addition to traditional financial data collection, new data sources such as mobile banking and the Internet of Things (IoT) provide an additional layer of data gathering. Combined with Artificial Intelligence, Big Data analytics utilize large amounts of old and new data to discover hidden patterns for better risk management and fraud detection. New insights from big data improve the understanding of customer behaviors and help banks to create better and more customized products and services.

AI helps banks to analyze their Big Data to improve existing solutions and make better decisions. A more recent AI trend is to use its cognitive abilities to go through a large amount of unstructured text and data to generate more insights and to learn natural language. A more intelligent AI chatbot or virtual assistant can take over repetitive “low-value” operations, such as performing small amount transactions, explaining financial products and providing basic financial advice to customers.