President and CEO of Tameer Microfinance Bank Ltd, Nadeem Husain has said that Microfinance banking is more advance in Pakistan than any other country in the region as verification system through Nadra is not available in India, Bangladesh or most of the countries in the region.
Addressing an Iftar party, Husain said that in this gloomy economic scenario, Microfinance banking could be a ray of hope and play a vital role in eradicating the unemployment in the country. He said Tameer Bank had provided access to finance to people, who were not banked or could not take loans from other commercial banks. He said Tameer Bank's outreach had expanded manifolds due to Branchless Banking (Easypaisa) which had opened the doors for financial inclusion. "This is a bank for the common people, who can approach and take small loans," Nadeem assured.
Nadeem said that due to many regulations Microfinance banking could not reach to its targeted consumers as there should be at least 30 million consumers of microfinancing while it has 300,000 only. He said Pakistan's model of Microfinance banking was far better than Grameen Bank in Bangladesh as Tameer Bank's volume through Easypaisa was three times more than Grameen Bank.
He said Tameer Bank through Easypaisa had announced the availability of its InterBank Fund Transfer (IBFT) service to enable customers to transfer funds between a number of banks via the 1-link switch. With IBFT for Easypaisa, the service has become the first mobile money service in Pakistan to become interoperable with the existing banking infrastructure. Easypaisa's IBFT service will be available for its mobile account holders and Over-the-Counter (OTC) customers.-PR