bKash Profile

bKash Limited, a subsidiary of BRAC Bank, started as a joint venture between BRAC Bank
Limited, Bangladesh and Money in Motion LLC, USA. In April 2013, International Finance
Corporation (IFC), a member of the World Bank Group, became an equity partner and in April
2014, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation became the equity investor of the company. The
ultimate objective of bKash is to ensure access to a broader range of financial services for the
people of Bangladesh. It has a special focus to serve the low-income masses of the country
to achieve broader financial inclusion by providing services that are convenient, affordable
and reliable.

More than 70% of the population of Bangladesh lives in rural areas where access to formal
financial services is difficult. Yet these are the people who are in most need of such services,
either for receiving funds from loved ones in distant locations, or to access financial tools to
improve their economic condition. Less than 15% of Bangladeshis are connected to the
formal banking system whereas over 68% have mobile phones. These phones are not merely
devices for talking, but can be used for more useful and sophisticated processing tasks.
bKash was conceived primarily to utilize these mobile devices and the omnipresent telecom
networks to extend financial services in a secure manner to the under-served remote
population of Bangladesh.

bKash Mission

By providing financial services that are convenient, affordable and reliable, bKash aims to
widen the net of financial inclusion. bKash wants to provide a solution for Mobile Financial
Services, built on a highly scalable Mobile Money platform, allowing the people of Bangladesh
to safely send and receive money via mobile devices.

bKash The Brand

The brand promise of bKash is Financial Inclusion of the unbanked population of

Bangladesh. By financial inclusion bKash means that it wants to provide a service that will
enable the unbanked population of Bangladesh to make financial transaction with ease, since

the formal financial institutions are not very keen to serve these people. bKash also intend to
fulfill the financial need of these people.

The Financial Need

Storage
Money
Transfer
Financial
Need

Savings
Payment
Credit
Facility

The basic financial needs of a person in Bangladesh can be categorized as presented above.
A person needs to store their money, they may chose to store the money at their house or
with a financial institution. Storage is linked with safety, people would want to keep their
money safe.

Transfer of money is important to a person. As majority of the workforce in the country lives in
the urban areas and their families resides in rural areas it is important that they send money
to their loved ones. Existing modes of money transfer are unreliable and it is to some extent
safe, furthermore there is no trace of how money is circulated throughout the country.

Savings is what a person wants to do when they have idle money. They want their money to
grow, when there is no access to formal financial system there is no scope for the people to
save their money.

Carrying cash these days is not trendy. It is not safe to carry cash anymore. So alternative
payment methods are a status symbol. For the population with access to formal banking
system debit cards and credit cards are of huge importance.

When you are in need of money only financial institutions can provide it. So without access to
a financial system credit facilities are unavailable to the people. Only way they can get a
credit facility is from a moneylender who would charge exorbitant amount of interest on their
lending.

Segmentation

Population
Formal
Banking

No
formal
Banking
Mobile
Phone User
Adult
Users

Busines
s
Corporate
Houses
Developme
nt Projects
Agro
Business

Consume
r
Wage
Earner
Student
Househol
d

The segmentation of bKash is based on the demography. The population is divided in two
parts, people with formal banking access and people with no formal banking access. Then the
segments are the people who have a mobile phone connection. The adult users of mobile
phone connection are then separated in two broad categories Consumer & Business. The
reason for choosing only adult population is only the adults is granted permission by the
government of Bangladesh to have an account with a financial institution. Minors are only
allowed as joint holders of an account.

Target Market
Current targeted segment

Consumer

Labor force: Industry Labor 27 mill, Service Labor 27 mill (2013). This is the
largest mass market for which bKash is most convenient. They earn minimum
wage and they need a place to store money, send money and use money for
everyday transactions

Students: 2.5 million. The adult student population requires money to cover
their expenses. A vast majority of the students study at colleges and
universities around the country. And they need an access to a financial
service.

Households: 20 million. The housewife of these households in majority of the

cases doesnt have the access to a banking system. Since these housewives
do not have any income it is not a profitable scheme for the financial
institutions to provide them with bank accounts. However these households
do have financial need, so bKash is the alternative to banks for them

Business

Seasonal Agro business transaction Size approx. 900 million USD per year.
Agro business make up for a huge industry in the country and the nature of
this business requires he fast movement of cash. Since the participants are
mostly farmers they have no access to formal banking channel and thus
bKash in an excellent alternative to it.

Corporate houses: a great many number of corporate organizations have

their operations all over the country and they need to dispense cash to their
employees, vendors and other stakeholders fast. So bKash is mode of
channel that they would use to disburse the money to the remotest location of
the country. Many of the large organizations are using bKash already to fulfill
their needs.

Development Projects: are usually working in the rural areas where the
access to a financial institution is not possible, as a result bKash is a number
one choice for them now.

Positioning
Consumer Side
Currently bKash is fulfilling the 4 Financial needs from the consumer side on their competitive
advantage

Providing a storage of idle money

A fast & reliable channel to transfer money

Platform to save with collaboration of commercial bank

Make instant payments; for example - shopping or different bills instantly

using cell phone

Business Side
Currently providing businesses with following solutions at finger tip

Payment solutions

Money transaction

In reality both retail consumer and businesses perceive bKash as a mode of money transfer.
This is the actual positioning that bKash has placed itself. However they need to highlight that
they are not a money transfer facility only. There are other financial needs of customers that
they can fulfill. For the customer bKash should introduce service that will enable them to link
the bank accounts of customers with their wallet. This will enable the customers to move back
and forth between the financial services. bKash should also try to popularize payments
through it. Online transactions are already being made using bKash however it should be
tapped aggressively.
Just like account payee cheques bKash should try to become a favored mode of payment
instrument for large organizations. It is a time consuming job to write and sign cheuqes, which
devours a lot of expensive management time. By habituating the organizations to make
payments using bKash organizations can cut down on the cost as well.

Product

A virtual Wallet: bKash is a virtual wallet where the cash is converted to virtual money
with the help of an agent and it is stored in a virtual moneybag that uses the mobile
network platform. It is called a wallet because the money is always with the customer
wherever they go as they always carry their mobile phones with them like their
wallets. Currently the following services are being offered by bKash

Transfer Funds

Payment

Buy Airtime

Savings

The benefits of the product

Fast
bKash is dedicated to widening the net of financial inclusion among the people of Bangladesh
by facilitating money transfer through mobile phones. bKash provides Mobile Financial
Services allowing customers to send, receive, and pay money from their mobile phones. Send
and receive money, or make payments the fastest way there is! bKash enables you to send
money to anyone, using an advanced technology available on your own mobile phone. The
recipient will receive money instantly, no matter where s/he is. Payments through bKash also
make your life easier as you do not have to go back home or anywhere else to get money
when you need to buy something and have run out of cash. Even if you don't have the
required amount in your bKash Wallet, someone else can easily send you the amount in times
of need.
Affordable
Send and receive money with minimal effort and cost. bKash provides the highest benefits to
its customers at an affordable cost, enabling everyone to access the formal financial system
of the economy.
In addition to eliminating initial monetary costs involved in entering the banking system,
bKash greatly minimizes opportunity costs such as time and effort required to access such
services. The service charges are minimal and there are no hidden costs involved.
Open a bKash Wallet on your own mobile and experience how bKash saves unexpected and
incidental costs for you.
Secure
Money in your bKash Wallet won't be lost even if you lose your mobile phone. Every
transaction is protected by your very own PIN and what's more, state-of-the-art technology
provided by VISA ensures that your money is always safe and secure in our system.
Your PIN is your Personal Identification Number that you create when you register for bKash.
Each transaction you make needs to be authorized by entering your PIN. To ensure 100%
safety of your own wallet, do not share your PIN with anyone.
bKash places a high priority on protecting your information to assure that your transactions
and data are secure with bKash. Our security and compliance practices are regularly audited
to ensure that they meet the highest standards.
Convenient
bKash users enjoy increased convenience of accessing their finances from their own mobile
phones anytime, anywhere. bKash gives you the flexibility to perform transactions 24 hours a
day, 7 days a week, regardless of time and place. "No queues no waiting"; the most
convenient way of transferring money.

Be it on a bus, train, launch, or anywhere else; as long as you have a bKash Wallet on your
mobile phone, you can access your wallet and send or receive money in seconds.
The bKash interface also uses a very easy and simple instruction based USSD channel. By
dialing *247#, anyone can transfer money just by tapping a few buttons on his or her mobile
phone. bKash is the most convenient way of transferring your money.
Nationwide
bKash is the easiest and safest way to send or receive money instantly on your mobile,
nationwide. No matter where you are in Bangladesh, bKash is always with you.
Our extensive distribution network with more than 85,000 Agents covering each district and
Thana along with around 300 BRAC Bank ATMs provides you with the nationwide reach and
capacity that you need to avail bKash services at a close proximity.
Mobile networks of all the leading MNOs support the service, which enables you to access
your bKash Wallet even from the remotest areas of Bangladesh.

Place
Retail Consumers

At consumers door-step fast and easy access

Nationwide largest distribution network
196 Distributors.
80,000 Agents.

Any shop is a potential place where bKash can be made available. This is a major strength of
bKash. Any place where a transaction takes place, bKash can be a transaction option. It has

the edge over the sophisticated cards as it only requires the sender and receiver to have a
mobile phone. No need for POS machines or other fancy hardware is needed. Furthermore is
cash is not at hand at that moment of transaction bKash becomes the option for payment. So
the availability of bKash is virtually equivalent to cash.
Alternative Distribution
For B2B its a direct channel, businesses send their requirement directly to the Account
Management Team they in turn process their requests. An itemized transaction-processing
request is sent to the concerned account manager, who then receives the payment instruction
along with the deposit confirmation. Then the request is placed to the operations team who
process the payment through the payment platform software. It is as fast as a bank transfer
with instant notification via SMS. No time is wasted in clearing and sending people to multiple
places to do transactions.
The distribution Framework

Sells to the distributors

Distributors gives cash to
bKash

Buys from bKash

Sells to the Agents

Buys from Distributors

Retails to the customers

Bkash
Distributo
r
Agents