“Mobile” Cash

Cash transactions from mobile phone to mobile phone, that’s the latest product to the market introduced by Sri Lanka’s largest telecoms operator, Dialog Axiata plc, for a fee. The custodian bank for these transactions is Hatton National Bank plc (HNB), where Dialog will match rupee for rupee in an interest earning account maintained by it with HNB, equivalent to the float involved, under this new business paradigm.
On the issue of financial literacy vis-à-vis mobile telephony of the local consumer? Dialog CEO/director Dr. Hans Wijayasuriya told reporters last Wednesday that a million subscribers of their’s were versed in transferring money from one mobile to the other under their “top up” services.
HNB’s Senior Deputy General Manager Strategy & Compliance Nihal Kekulawala speaking  at the introduction of this new service said that 22 years ago HNB embarked on a journey to provide banking to the unbanked, where loans as small as Rs. 5,000 were disbursed to the poorest of the poor, under the “Gami Pubuduwa” scheme.
“Today we are joining Dialog by introducing a different financial model,” he said.