Digital Money in Nepal 2013
Why this viewport
Nepal is currently undergoing a transformation in financial services, with the spread of Digital Money aided by the rapid penetration of mobile phones. Along with other countries in Asia Pacific, it is engaged in creating an enabling environment to promote financial inclusion as well as improve payment systems for broader use.
At ShiftThought we work with organisations around the world to shift the thinking from a focus on Mobile Money to planning for the wider set of initiatives we term as Digital Money. Through this Country Series of viewports we share with you findings from our on-going in-depth analysis of the state of play of Digital Money Initiatives in each country, within the context of the larger region and world-wide trends.
Digital Money services are no longer confined to a single industry, and this breaks down traditional models of competitive analysis. Our approach is designed to helps players to understand the strategies and business models coming from industries other than their own, across a range of products and services and from different parts of the world, to distil best practices for building successful brands that provide innovative access to financial services.
This viewport shares the analytic frameworks we developed to communicate the complexities of the transformation underway in the country, within the broader context of the developments in Digital Money across the world.
Use of the Shift Thought Viewport
We coined the term Viewport to describe the unique set of features offered by our Digital Money Series. A viewport combines the portability of a report with the navigability of a portal view. We recommend that you use it in the Adobe Acrobat View=>Navigation Panels=>Bookmarks mode, using the “+” sign to rapidly access the topic of interest. We hope you enjoy the unique internal and external linking capability we designed to provide you access to knowledge within the context of interest to you.
Key Questions Addressed
The Digital Money Country Viewport Series provides an understanding of the digitisation of payments globally and for each of the major regions and countries of the world. It provides contextual knowledge relating to markets and initiatives to help regulators, developers and practitioners discover answers to questions such as the following: Question Addressed Relevant Sections
1. What are the trends in the use of Digital Money in meeting market needs?
2. How have regulations changed recently and what other changes are likely?
3. How should you prioritise markets for launch?
4. Which are the leading innovations in each market, and what made them successful?
5. Which attempts at Digital Money services failed to take off and why?
6. How do you get consumers to adopt and stick with your new way of transferring money and making payments?
7. How do you make it beyond Year 1, and achieve commercial success?
8. How should you prioritise consumer segments?
9. What channels must you support?
10. Who should you look to partner with in each part of the world, and what if you are competing with them?
11. How do you get cash in and out of your digital wallet, what agent network is best for you?
12. What is the most effective way of managing regulatory compliance?
13. What approach should you take towards branding your services?
14. How should you manage personal data, with a win-win approach?
15. What technologies should you favour?
16. What is the package of services you will need to offer?
What makes this viewport unique
This viewport is based on our in-depth research and analysis of over 1500 different digital money initiatives in over 200 countries and territories. We analyse the strategies of over 4000 players around the world, tracing their reach, ownership and partnering strategies across 32 services in order to determine and assess their current initiatives relating to Digital Money. This aims to provide a clear understanding of all the kinds of services that now compete with or supplement each other, how they apply in different geographies based on needs and regulations, and what they could mean to your business. What is at a premium is your time, so this aims to be educative but also to act as a ready reference that helps you harness new opportunities at the intersection of online, offline, mobile, social and local.
This viewport is part of the Digital Money Series that covers innovations in different services involved in digitising money and providing improved financial services around the world.
Audience
This viewport will be particularly useful to providers who are in Nepal or invest in the country, or operate in countries that have large numbers of migrants sending money to that country. It will also be useful to Development agencies, Regulators and Government bodies and Funding organisations around the world. As this viewport covers a historic period in the development of branchless banking, in a country that is one of the pioneers of mobile-based branchless banking, it will be useful to people who are involved in similar projects elsewhere in the world.
As other countries have also adopted similar regulatory models, this viewport is relevant to those interested in other countries engaged in similar market development activity. You will also find this series of viewports useful if you are in Telecoms, Banking, Payments, Technology, Cards, Retail, Money Transfer, Venture Financing – indeed few industries are not actually touched by the revolution we make sense of here.
It will be relevant whether or not you are considering entry into financial services. If you are considering entry it will help you uncover aspects that we hope will contribute to the success of your enterprise. If you are not considering entry it will provide a useful guide for you to anticipate and detect changes that may affect your business. Did the advent of acceptance of cards affect your business? If it did, then get prepared for Digital Money 2.0.
If you are new to this field, you will still find this a useful introduction but may need to supplement this viewport with others in our series. We hope you enjoy using this viewport.
Guide to this viewport
This viewport provides a detailed guide and reference to the Nepal Digital Money market.
The Executive Summary together with Fast Facts is a handy digest that offers the reader a short overview of developments in the market.
Chapter 1, The Context introduces the concept of Digital Money and explores how this exciting new area is developing around the world. We devote special importance to the trends in Asia Pacific.
Chapter 2, Digital Money in Nepal provides an introductory overview of how services are developing in the country – What is driving Digital Money, the kinds of business models and the adoption and maturity of the market.
Chapter 3, Market Segments goes into the detail of the needs of various market segments. It describes the demographics and the access to Financial Services.
Chapter 4, The Services Explored discusses the whole package of services expected by the market. A provider may choose to specialise in certain areas, and partner with others to ensure their consumers enjoy a seamless experience with all the features and functionality they expect.
Chapter 5, Regulatory Environment provides an overview of the regulations that shape the growth of the industry and provides a description of the regulations and the rules that govern the provision of services.
Chapter 6, Ecosystem Analysis discusses the evolving models in the country. It provides an understanding of the Payments System in the country and introduces the various categories of players and the Partnerships that are forming around the delivery of Digital Money Services.
Chapter 7, Player Profiles provides a detailed profile of each of the players in the country. It is organised by class of trade. There are links from the Player Profile to each of the Digital Money Initiatives in which the player participates.
Chapter 8, Digital Money Initiatives (DMI) provides a detailed profile of each of the services launched in the market. We provide the Shift Thought framework to show the digital money flows in the end-to-end process between Sender and Receiver, and describe the services offered. There are links from the DMI Profile to each of the players involved in the initiative.
The Appendix provides a description of the Methodology we use and has a useful Glossary of terms and concepts. It also has the Bibliography with the Sources cited in this document.
Nepal is currently undergoing a transformation in financial services, with the spread of Digital Money aided by the rapid penetration of mobile phones. Along with other countries in Asia Pacific, it is engaged in creating an enabling environment to promote financial inclusion as well as improve payment systems for broader use.
At ShiftThought we work with organisations around the world to shift the thinking from a focus on Mobile Money to planning for the wider set of initiatives we term as Digital Money. Through this Country Series of viewports we share with you findings from our on-going in-depth analysis of the state of play of Digital Money Initiatives in each country, within the context of the larger region and world-wide trends.
Digital Money services are no longer confined to a single industry, and this breaks down traditional models of competitive analysis. Our approach is designed to helps players to understand the strategies and business models coming from industries other than their own, across a range of products and services and from different parts of the world, to distil best practices for building successful brands that provide innovative access to financial services.
This viewport shares the analytic frameworks we developed to communicate the complexities of the transformation underway in the country, within the broader context of the developments in Digital Money across the world.
Use of the Shift Thought Viewport
We coined the term Viewport to describe the unique set of features offered by our Digital Money Series. A viewport combines the portability of a report with the navigability of a portal view. We recommend that you use it in the Adobe Acrobat View=>Navigation Panels=>Bookmarks mode, using the “+” sign to rapidly access the topic of interest. We hope you enjoy the unique internal and external linking capability we designed to provide you access to knowledge within the context of interest to you.
Key Questions Addressed
The Digital Money Country Viewport Series provides an understanding of the digitisation of payments globally and for each of the major regions and countries of the world. It provides contextual knowledge relating to markets and initiatives to help regulators, developers and practitioners discover answers to questions such as the following: Question Addressed Relevant Sections
1. What are the trends in the use of Digital Money in meeting market needs?
2. How have regulations changed recently and what other changes are likely?
3. How should you prioritise markets for launch?
4. Which are the leading innovations in each market, and what made them successful?
5. Which attempts at Digital Money services failed to take off and why?
6. How do you get consumers to adopt and stick with your new way of transferring money and making payments?
7. How do you make it beyond Year 1, and achieve commercial success?
8. How should you prioritise consumer segments?
9. What channels must you support?
10. Who should you look to partner with in each part of the world, and what if you are competing with them?
11. How do you get cash in and out of your digital wallet, what agent network is best for you?
12. What is the most effective way of managing regulatory compliance?
13. What approach should you take towards branding your services?
14. How should you manage personal data, with a win-win approach?
15. What technologies should you favour?
16. What is the package of services you will need to offer?
What makes this viewport unique
This viewport is based on our in-depth research and analysis of over 1500 different digital money initiatives in over 200 countries and territories. We analyse the strategies of over 4000 players around the world, tracing their reach, ownership and partnering strategies across 32 services in order to determine and assess their current initiatives relating to Digital Money. This aims to provide a clear understanding of all the kinds of services that now compete with or supplement each other, how they apply in different geographies based on needs and regulations, and what they could mean to your business. What is at a premium is your time, so this aims to be educative but also to act as a ready reference that helps you harness new opportunities at the intersection of online, offline, mobile, social and local.
This viewport is part of the Digital Money Series that covers innovations in different services involved in digitising money and providing improved financial services around the world.
Audience
This viewport will be particularly useful to providers who are in Nepal or invest in the country, or operate in countries that have large numbers of migrants sending money to that country. It will also be useful to Development agencies, Regulators and Government bodies and Funding organisations around the world. As this viewport covers a historic period in the development of branchless banking, in a country that is one of the pioneers of mobile-based branchless banking, it will be useful to people who are involved in similar projects elsewhere in the world.
As other countries have also adopted similar regulatory models, this viewport is relevant to those interested in other countries engaged in similar market development activity. You will also find this series of viewports useful if you are in Telecoms, Banking, Payments, Technology, Cards, Retail, Money Transfer, Venture Financing – indeed few industries are not actually touched by the revolution we make sense of here.
It will be relevant whether or not you are considering entry into financial services. If you are considering entry it will help you uncover aspects that we hope will contribute to the success of your enterprise. If you are not considering entry it will provide a useful guide for you to anticipate and detect changes that may affect your business. Did the advent of acceptance of cards affect your business? If it did, then get prepared for Digital Money 2.0.
If you are new to this field, you will still find this a useful introduction but may need to supplement this viewport with others in our series. We hope you enjoy using this viewport.
Guide to this viewport
This viewport provides a detailed guide and reference to the Nepal Digital Money market.
The Executive Summary together with Fast Facts is a handy digest that offers the reader a short overview of developments in the market.
Chapter 1, The Context introduces the concept of Digital Money and explores how this exciting new area is developing around the world. We devote special importance to the trends in Asia Pacific.
Chapter 2, Digital Money in Nepal provides an introductory overview of how services are developing in the country – What is driving Digital Money, the kinds of business models and the adoption and maturity of the market.
Chapter 3, Market Segments goes into the detail of the needs of various market segments. It describes the demographics and the access to Financial Services.
Chapter 4, The Services Explored discusses the whole package of services expected by the market. A provider may choose to specialise in certain areas, and partner with others to ensure their consumers enjoy a seamless experience with all the features and functionality they expect.
Chapter 5, Regulatory Environment provides an overview of the regulations that shape the growth of the industry and provides a description of the regulations and the rules that govern the provision of services.
Chapter 6, Ecosystem Analysis discusses the evolving models in the country. It provides an understanding of the Payments System in the country and introduces the various categories of players and the Partnerships that are forming around the delivery of Digital Money Services.
Chapter 7, Player Profiles provides a detailed profile of each of the players in the country. It is organised by class of trade. There are links from the Player Profile to each of the Digital Money Initiatives in which the player participates.
Chapter 8, Digital Money Initiatives (DMI) provides a detailed profile of each of the services launched in the market. We provide the Shift Thought framework to show the digital money flows in the end-to-end process between Sender and Receiver, and describe the services offered. There are links from the DMI Profile to each of the players involved in the initiative.
The Appendix provides a description of the Methodology we use and has a useful Glossary of terms and concepts. It also has the Bibliography with the Sources cited in this document.
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
FAST FACTS
1: THE CONTEXT
Digital Money around the World
Digital Money in Asia Pacific
2: DIGITAL MONEY IN NEPAL
The Digital Money Dashboard
Comparative analysis by Purpose
Digital Money Drivers
Timeline of Digital Money
Economic Outlook
Business Models
Digital Money Adoption
3: MARKET SEGMENTS
Key Segment Analysis
Payments Infrastructure and Access
4: THE SERVICES EXPLORED
Where is the market?
5: REGULATORY ENVIRONMENT
Overview of regulations
List of Regulations
Rules
6: ECOSYSTEM ANALYSIS
Evolving models
Players in the Ecosystem
7: PLAYER PROFILES
Summary of Players
Directory of Players
Player Profiles
8: DIGITAL MONEY INITIATIVES
Summary of Initiatives
Directory of Initiatives
Initiative Profiles
Appendix
Methodology
Glossary
FAST FACTS
1: THE CONTEXT
Digital Money around the World
Digital Money in Asia Pacific
2: DIGITAL MONEY IN NEPAL
The Digital Money Dashboard
Comparative analysis by Purpose
Digital Money Drivers
Timeline of Digital Money
Economic Outlook
Business Models
Digital Money Adoption
3: MARKET SEGMENTS
Key Segment Analysis
Payments Infrastructure and Access
4: THE SERVICES EXPLORED
Where is the market?
5: REGULATORY ENVIRONMENT
Overview of regulations
List of Regulations
Rules
6: ECOSYSTEM ANALYSIS
Evolving models
Players in the Ecosystem
7: PLAYER PROFILES
Summary of Players
Directory of Players
Player Profiles
8: DIGITAL MONEY INITIATIVES
Summary of Initiatives
Directory of Initiatives
Initiative Profiles
Appendix
Methodology
Glossary
LIST OF FIGURES
Figure 1: Taking the long way around
Figure 2: The Three Waves of Innovation
Figure 3: Extract from AFI 2012 Progress Report on Maya Declarations
Figure 4: The Digital Money Ecosystem
Figure 5: Mobile money deployments by World Bank region, March 2012
Figure 6: The Digital Money Dashboard
Figure 7: Channel Access In the World, Region and Country
Figure 8: Analysis by Main Service
Figure 9: Timeline of Digital Money in Nepal
Figure 10: Business models for Digital Money
Figure 11: Shift Thought Evolutionary Framework for Digital Money
Figure 12: Penetration levels for outreach
Figure 13: A summary of financial access channels
Figure 14: Trend in the number of ATMs by region
Figure 15: Trend in the use of debit cards
Figure 16: Growth in the number of credit cards in Nepal
Figure 17: Growth of prepaid cards in Nepal
Figure 18: Comparison of growth for different card types
Figure 19: Steep growth in mobile users in the country
Figure 20: Trend in the growth of mobile banking users and services
Figure 21: Trend in internet banking users and services
Figure 22: Distribution of Migrant Stock
Figure 23: Main countries from which the country receives remittances
Figure 24: The trend in the volume of remittances
Figure 25: Top Remittance Corridors
Figure 26: Domestic prepaid cards have steadily increased
Figure 27: Global and Local Models for Digital Money
Figure 28: Composition of the financial system in Nepal
Figure 29: Number of Banks/FIs licensed by NRB
Figure 30: Analysis of growth of bank branches for Class A banks
Figure 31: Market shares of mobile operators in Nepal
Figure 32: The Digital Money SAGE
PLAYERS MENTIONED
Agriculture Development Bank Limited (ADBL) Bank of Asia Nepal Ltd (BOA) Bank of Kathmandu Ltd (BOKL) D-Sys Everest Bank Ltd (EBL) Global IME Bank (GBL) Grand Bank Nepal Ltd
Himalayan Bank Ltd (HBL) Hulas Remittance Pvt Ltd. Janata Bank
Kist Bank
Kumari Speed Remit Worldwide Ltd
Standard Chartered Bank Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB)
Nepal Telecommunications Authority
CG Chaudhary Group
Chhimek Laghubitta Bikas Bank Ltd. (CLBBL)
Ncell
Nepal Telecom
CG Money Remit
EzRemit
Moneygram Prabhu Money Transfer
Western Union Xpress Money Services
FINO
Paymotech
Paytoo
Travelex Visa
MasterCard
American Express
Finaccess Leapfrog Technology
PayPal
Gemalto
Verifone
Figure 1: Taking the long way around
Figure 2: The Three Waves of Innovation
Figure 3: Extract from AFI 2012 Progress Report on Maya Declarations
Figure 4: The Digital Money Ecosystem
Figure 5: Mobile money deployments by World Bank region, March 2012
Figure 6: The Digital Money Dashboard
Figure 7: Channel Access In the World, Region and Country
Figure 8: Analysis by Main Service
Figure 9: Timeline of Digital Money in Nepal
Figure 10: Business models for Digital Money
Figure 11: Shift Thought Evolutionary Framework for Digital Money
Figure 12: Penetration levels for outreach
Figure 13: A summary of financial access channels
Figure 14: Trend in the number of ATMs by region
Figure 15: Trend in the use of debit cards
Figure 16: Growth in the number of credit cards in Nepal
Figure 17: Growth of prepaid cards in Nepal
Figure 18: Comparison of growth for different card types
Figure 19: Steep growth in mobile users in the country
Figure 20: Trend in the growth of mobile banking users and services
Figure 21: Trend in internet banking users and services
Figure 22: Distribution of Migrant Stock
Figure 23: Main countries from which the country receives remittances
Figure 24: The trend in the volume of remittances
Figure 25: Top Remittance Corridors
Figure 26: Domestic prepaid cards have steadily increased
Figure 27: Global and Local Models for Digital Money
Figure 28: Composition of the financial system in Nepal
Figure 29: Number of Banks/FIs licensed by NRB
Figure 30: Analysis of growth of bank branches for Class A banks
Figure 31: Market shares of mobile operators in Nepal
Figure 32: The Digital Money SAGE
PLAYERS MENTIONED
Agriculture Development Bank Limited (ADBL) Bank of Asia Nepal Ltd (BOA) Bank of Kathmandu Ltd (BOKL) D-Sys Everest Bank Ltd (EBL) Global IME Bank (GBL) Grand Bank Nepal Ltd
Himalayan Bank Ltd (HBL) Hulas Remittance Pvt Ltd. Janata Bank
Kist Bank
Kumari Speed Remit Worldwide Ltd
Standard Chartered Bank Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB)
Nepal Telecommunications Authority
CG Chaudhary Group
Chhimek Laghubitta Bikas Bank Ltd. (CLBBL)
Ncell
Nepal Telecom
CG Money Remit
EzRemit
Moneygram Prabhu Money Transfer
Western Union Xpress Money Services
FINO
Paymotech
Paytoo
Travelex Visa
MasterCard
American Express
Finaccess Leapfrog Technology
PayPal
Gemalto
Verifone
