SINGAPORE, May 29 (Bernama) -- One of the largest banks in Myanmar,
Kanbawza Bank Ltd (KBZ Bank), will now be accepting MasterCard payments
cards at ATMs throughout the country, following a succession of similar
achievements which MasterCard has announced over the past eight months,
less than a year since entering the Myanmar market.
KBZ Bank has the largest branch network in Myanmar and operates 55 ATMs
across the country in states such as Yangon, Mandalay and Shan at
convenient locations such as supermarkets, airports, restaurants, hotels
and shopping centres.
With KBZ Bank ATM acceptance, this brings to 140 the number of active
ATM's in Myanmar that accept MasterCard and Maestro/Cirrus cards.
Antonio Corro, country manager, Thailand and Myanmar, MasterCard, said
apart from being extremely convenient for the huge number of visitors
expected this year-including at next month's historic World Economic
Forum - increasing ATM acceptance would help facilitate the process of
financial inclusion for a nation that mostly relies on cash
transactions.
"Our intention in Myanmar since becoming operational has been to
steadily build up its payments infrastructure, its capability, and
facilitate financial inclusion. That means expanding the number of
points where safe and easy transactions can be made, and supporting
businesses that are part of this growing economy," Corro said in a
statement released here.
MasterCard was the first international payments network to issue a
license to a Myanmar bank in September last year, paving the way
international payment cards to be accepted in the country for the first
time.
In November, MasterCard and Co-operative Bank Ltd (CB Bank) teamed up
to launch the first ATM transaction at one of the bank's Yangon ATMs.
Indeed, the country has seen an amazing rate of economic growth since
July 2012 when the US Department of the Treasury's Office of Foreign
Assets Control (OFAC) eased sanctions which previously prohibited
Myanmar from connecting to the global economy.
This is only set to improve further with the anticipated end of all US
sanctions following the historic presidential visit of Thein Sein to the
White House recently.
As a country, Myanmar is at the very early stages of a financial reform and they're a 100 per cent cash-driven economy.
However what's promising is that the Government leaders and bureaucrats
have a clear vision of how they'd like to drive financial inclusion,
reduce cash, drive change and efficiency, and drive e-commerce and
mobile payments.
Critically, the country has a majority of people who remain unbanked.
Technology such as electronic payments will be not only be crucial in
helping Myanmar connect to the global economy, facilitating business
activity, but also in creating a better life for its citizens, of which
less than 10% have access to financial services.
Corro said financial inclusion will give the people of Myanmar access
to services and resources that are needed to participate in their
emerging economy, services that we often take for granted, but which are
instrumental in achieving the country's goals and aspirations.
"That's where MasterCard can help and we already have - and we will
continue working with Myanmar's financial institutions to support the
expansion of electronic payments," he added.
It is expected that more than 500 restaurants, retail outlets and
hotels in Myanmar will be accepting credit cards by the end of the year,
following the rollout of Point-of-Sale (POS) terminals in April with CB
Bank, which included the national budget airline Golden Myanmar
Airlines.
There are now currently five MasterCard member banks in Myanmar:
Co-Operative Bank Ltd; Kanbawza Bank Ltd; United Amara Bank Ltd; Myanma
Apex Bank Ltd; and, Myanmar Citizens Bank Ltd.
MasterCard is expecting to announce new bank licence agreements in the near future.
source: Bernama
http://www.bernama.com.my/bernama/v7/wn/newsworld.php?id=952709
No comments:
Post a Comment