Econet on EcoCash open access: “Hey banks, here’s the deal…”

L.S.M Kabweza Avatar
Yesterday, Econet made an announcement via a release to assure the market that issues (these, issues) have been resolved with “virtually all banks” and everything working according to plan, all banks that want to be connected to EcoCash, would be integrated by end of March 2013. According to release Econet is apparently responding to fears by some financial institutions that they’ll lose customer to EcoCash integrated banks.

Yesterday, Econet made an announcement via a release to assure the market that issues (these, issues) have been resolved with “virtually all banks” and everything working according to plan, all banks that want to be connected to EcoCash, would be integrated by end of March 2013. According to release Econet is apparently responding to fears by some financial institutions that they’ll lose customer to EcoCash integrated banks.Yesterday, Econet made an announcement via a release to assure the market that issues (these, issues) have been resolved with “virtually all banks” and that if everything works according to plan, all banks that want to be connected to EcoCash, would be integrated by end of March 2013. According to the release Econet is apparently responding to fears by some financial institutions that they’ll lose customers to EcoCash integrated banks. We don’t know of these fears, but we are not bankers…

What we see though is as a warning from Econet (or word of advice, or ultimatum, or more simply ‘hey banks here’s the deal’) to either integrate on Econet’s terms or risk losing customers to those banks that do. As a Stanbic executive gave in when he was asked by journos how many of the bank’s customers would benefit from partnering EcoCash: “Econet has 8 million subscribers,” he said “any other statistic pales in comparison”. Maybe the fearing bankers Econet refers to realise that too.

The argument from the banks is that integration should not be on Econet’s terms – it should be on the regulators’ they say. The Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe and the Postal and Telecommunications Regulatory Authority of Zimbabwe that is. The banks say that leaving the terms to Econet provides Econet the attractive opportunity to anti-competitively use its 8 million strong subscriber base to push EcoCash, while denying fair access to their network to rival Mobile Banking (and Mobile Money/ Banking hybrid) products like Text-a-cash and Mobile Moola.

What’s worse, Econet itself now owns a bank.

As you may know though, Econet has already moved to fix the ‘open payments switching platform’ aspect of things; they just hired an expert in that area to head EcoCash. Now, if ‘open payments switching’ sounds like what ZimSwitch has been doing for decades, that’s exactly what it is. Econet recognizes that the center of payments switching is shifting fast to mobile telecommunication networks, and that they’d be silly to hand over the core of their empire to the banks!

Here’s the full press release:

Econet Wireless has reached agreement with most of the banks on EcoCash integration, and the process is now progressing smoothly.

The company sent a message to all of its more than 8-million customers – many of whom were anxious that their bank would not be connected – that issues have been resolved with virtually all the banks and integration is progressing.

Bank integration appeals to top customers of Econet who already have bank accounts. Econet said when a bank is integrated, a person can undertake banking from anywhere in the world at any time of day. “You can move money from your account, and send it to someone in Zimbabwe even at midnight from China; it is that flexible,” said the company.

People who run businesses are using EcoCash integration to deposit money into their accounts after banking hours, avoiding having to hold onto cash, Econet said.

The company said banks that do not have integration have been concerned about losing customers to those banks that are already integrated with EcoCash.

Econet has however assured them and its customers that by the end of March, every bank that “wants to be integrated” would be integrated.

An Econet senior executive, Mr Darlington Mandivenga, said that he expected every single bank to be integrated by the end of March.

13 comments

  1. Wellywaa

    The Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe and the Postal and Telecommunications Regulatory Authority of Zimbabwe should step in and their bloody jobs and REGULATE!!! This hullabaloo reeks of anti-competitiveness.

    1. Wellywaa

      and *do* their bloody jobs

  2. Alaric

    Econet is offering banking services that’s no secret and there for should be regulated like any other financial institutions.

  3. 🙂

    If EcoCash is offering financial services, shouldn’t they be regulated by someone? Because to me, it looks like they are well on their way to being a monopoly if there’s little to no oversight from someone.

  4. Consumer

    Well I’m just happy someone is getting it done. All these others have had their chance since dollarisation to create a seamless payment system in Zim – and they failed. Thank goodness someone is bringing the market together. If there is a real-time and affordable payment system it will enable a huge bunch of new services and have a multiplier effect on the economy. You can’t run a modern economy without electronic payment systems – nothing decent emerged from the banking system in the last 4 years. So well done for Econet doing it now. As a consumer I am very happy and will certainly leave my bank if they do not integrate.

    1. dnc

      have already left barclays…

  5. macdchip

    Let be there a regulated platform from all other banks making noise then we compare with what econet is doing to see what is better.

    As of now, econet is offering a service to the long suffering masses of Zimbabwe and lets not kill what is working for the pleasure of those greed bankers who had offered nothing besides pocketing huge profits for themselves and shareholders

    1. Consumer

      well said!

  6. Member

    EcoCash for online payments

  7. Greg Chiponda

    The Reserve bank governor has alluded to the fact that they are working on coming up with a legislative framework to regulate the mobile money/payments sector.

  8. Ash

    Until the RBZ steps in i side with Ecocash, after all they have about 8 million pple behind them, i mean these banks and zimswitch have been there for years, they could have partnered with telecel net1 etc, so yes econet introduced something new and they r right to say “our rules”

  9. Blogger

    RBZ & POTRAZ – The lack of competition yields considerable power over prices in a pure, or unregulated, monopoly, but there is little control over prices in a regulated monopoly.

  10. Cold

    Very worrying article, very poor direction Econet is taking if that is indeed the case. I love to see innovation – but ultimatums are just ugly!

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