Most mobiles…

At the ICA mobile communication preconference, I presented some (preliminary) thoughts on the links between mobile banking and social networks/social capital. There is a great deal of enthusiasm about mobile banking in the developing world right now, and I don’t think it is misplaced; the technology can have a real impact in reducing the costs and increasing the reliability of moving and storing money for people who otherwise have little access to financial services.

The paper argues that social science research can be applied to improve the design, pricing, and marketing of m-banking services. In particular, I suggest that it would be helpful to use social network approaches to assess the impact of mobile banking for the poor and unbanked. In a sense, the mobile banking channel overlays/blurs communication and financial networks, which leads us back to one of the core questions in the technology-and-society debate — do communication technologies help people create new network ties, or improve/amplify the ones the ones they already have?

Two great resources for m-banking research are CGAP (the Consultative group to Assist the Poor) and infoDEV.