Fina bank has launched a new service that would see clients make payments to other banks using their mobile phones.Jean Paul Muramira, the Fina Bank head of electronic channels and remittance, said the platform would help reduce over-the-counter transactions and time wastage.“The service is geared at providing customers convenience by allowing them transfer money from their bank accounts to people in other banks without necessarily coming to the bank,” he said.He added that the transfer usually takes less than 24 hours and the beneficiary receives a message of confirmation. “If it is carried out between 8:00am and 4:00pm, the transaction takes only20 minutes to reach the beneficiary’s bank… It’s up to the receiver’s bank at this point to credit the money into the beneficiary’s account,” Muramira explained.Fina Bank is the first commercial bank in the country to launch the platform. The bank hopes the innovation will greatly boost its mobile banking users.In spite of the emerging competition from mobile money platforms, Muramira explained that rather than compete with the firms, they were looking to collaborate with to have a formidable financial sector.“Our MTN and Tigo customers are already able to use the service and we are working with Airtel to see how they can come on board,” he said.“It’s undisputed that mobile money has enabled financial inclusion for many, but we want to see that all banking facilities are included in the mobile banking platform since it has an enormous capacity.”Muramira added that one would be able to make payments and money transfers at a lesser cost compared to using the mobile money platform.Last year, Rwf3.9b was transferred in mobile banking down from Rwf5.2b in 2011, representing a 25 per cent decline.
