Speaking Notes for ANZ CEO Asia Pacific Alex Thursby. [Alex introduced by Dr Dan Evans from Business for Millennium Development]

Transcription

1 Banking the Unbanked Speaking Notes for ANZ CEO Asia Pacific Alex Thursby Business for Millennium Development Summit Friday, 24 October 2008, Melbourne [Alex introduced by Dr Dan Evans from Business for Millennium Development] Thank you Dan Acknowledgements: Minister Gabriel Kapris PNG Minister Commerce & Industry Minister Paul Tiensten PNG Minister for National Planning and District Development Bruce Jenks Assistant Secretary General and Director, Partnerships Bureau, United Nations Development Program There s an old saying that goes something like this if you give someone a fish, they will eat for a day. If you teach them how to fish, they can eat for a lifetime. Today I want to share with you a couple of case studies that in some ways represent the banking equivalent of that saying. One is about a farmer from a remote village in Fiji and the second involves garment factory workers in Phnom Penh in Cambodia. And both involve ANZ. We are Australia s largest bank in the Pacific - where we have businesses in 12 countries - and the leading Australian bank in Asia - operating in 14 markets. Building this footprint in the Asia Pacific region has required banking licences. ANZ accepts these licenses with humility and we recognise that we have a responsibility to contribute to the 1

2 development of the banking sector and the economy in these markets. Today I want to talk about some projects that not only lead to positive outcomes for disadvantaged communities, but which also have the potential to generate sustainable revenue streams for ANZ. Fiji So let me start with Fiji. ANZ has operated in the Pacific for more than 150 years and we continue to invest for growth in these markets. ANZ s Banking the Un-banked program is a rural banking business model that we launched in Fiji in partnership with the United Nations Development Program in It delivers basic, affordable and reliable banking services to some of Fiji s most remote and disadvantaged communities - helping them to develop and prosper. But the program is more than a demonstration of corporate responsibility. For ANZ, it is also an example of researching a business opportunity and developing a new banking market. Crucial to the success of this program has been the involvement of the UNDP in providing financial literacy education. We believe it is the first time that the UNDP has joined with a commercial organisation in a joint venture anywhere in the world. ANZ launched this rural banking initiative in Fiji and extended it to the Solomon Islands the following year. In 2004, there were about 400,000 people - almost half of Fiji s population - with no access to banking services. Most of these people lived in remote communities. 2

3 Our research conducted while sitting around village mats and listening to our future customers - showed that these communities didn t want or need traditional banks or relatively modern innovations such as ATMs. What they needed was a mobile bank that came to them. Why? because the cost of transport from communities in the interior of Fiji to the coastal cities was about $5, or almost 10% of average weekly earnings. Together, ANZ and the UNDP developed a business model based on a fleet of six trucks fitted out as mobile bank branches visiting about 300 villages a month. This provided communities with a regular, reliable and affordable service right on their doorstep. The program has been an enormous success. After just a couple of years, we had 60,000 customers with total savings of about $8 million. The vast majority of these new customers were first-time bank account holders. In addition to basic banking services, micro-loans were also offered to regular savers. To qualify, customers first had to demonstrate the ability to regularly save over a six-month period. We re very pleased to say that many of ANZ s rural banking customers in Fiji are now graduating from saving, to obtaining micro-loans, to applying for regular small business loans. Success Story Let me share with you just one of the success stories from this program. In Namasimasi village in central Fiji, a farmer named Mr TABUA started with a micro-loan of $200. By 2006, he was on his third micro-loan and had saved more than $2,500. Asked how he managed to pay off his loans and accumulate these savings, Mr TABUA said: Before ANZ I had nowhere to save so I 3

4 just spent the money I earned from the farm on all sorts of silly things. Then I started to save and with my first micro-loan, I was able to pay some boys from the village to clear my land and plant more crops. I now employ two men full-time to help me work my extended farm and have more than tripled the sales from my land. With my next loan I want to buy a truck so that I can transport my crops, and those of other farmers, down to Suva. Mr TABUA s story shows that many remote communities in the Pacific are poor partly because they lack services that we in the developed world take for granted. It also illustrates how the provision of basic banking services can really change lives - and how readily the seed of entrepreneurship can germinate in essentially subsistence communities. Australia Of course, the need for financial literacy is not unique to the developing world. In fact our research shows that in Australia those with below average financial literacy scores include the young, the elderly and those who are unemployed or living on Government benefits. ANZ has introduced several initiatives in Australia to help improve financial literacy and support people to develop good savings habits: o MoneyMinded is a financial education program that 30,000 people have participated in this year. o Saver Plus is a matched savings and financial literacy program. More than 4,000 people have now participated in 4

5 the program, together saving more than $2 million and being rewarded with matched savings totalling more than $2.3 million from ANZ. Asia Let me now turn to Asia, which is a growing part of ANZ s future. ANZ has an aspiration to generate 20% of Group net profit after tax from the Asia Pacific region by 2012, up from 7% of NPAT in 2007, and an aspiration to become a super regional bank. We are trialling a business model that we hope will help bank the unbanked in Cambodia, where less than 5% of the population have a bank account. Beginning with the garment factory workers of Phnom Penh, we are piloting a branchless banking model called WING - which we plan to launch commercially at the end of this year. WING has as its mission Making Money Fair - and is targeting mostly unbanked customers and providing them with easy access to low-cost financial services for the first time, using mobile phones. There are an estimated 7 to 8 million un-banked people in Cambodia. And yes, as in Fiji, we see this as a business opportunity. But we also anticipate that success with the WING program will help improve people s livelihoods and reduce poverty by increasing their access to banking services. WING will allow customers to use a mobile phone to instantly make person-to-person payments, transfer money to family members within Cambodia, and payments at merchants. 5

6 Highly seasonal income can trap people in a cycle of subsistence living. Having access to savings gives them the ability to invest in farming stock, feed, fertiliser and equipment. ANZ is working with Vision Fund a micro-finance institution owned by World Vision - to use their extensive branch network to provide cash in/cash out services for WING customers. ANZ has also partnered with the International Finance Corporation s Access to Finance program which has developed methods to measure the social and economic benefits of the WING service. The primary focus is to provide a low-cost electronic wallet for the unbanked in Cambodia, where the sad reality is that it is expensive to be poor money transfer agents will often charge 10% or more of the payment to transfer money. Many people in the provinces lead a precarious existence, and the flow of cash from family members who have moved to the city is absolutely essential to their survival. This means that WING has the potential to help lift rural Cambodians out of poverty. For ANZ, it also represents a business opportunity. Some 350,000 garment workers offer a major domestic remittance opportunity. The major internal remittance channels are between Phnom Penh and the six closest provinces. Each worker transfers between $20 and $40 to their families every month, accounting for 4 million informal remittances annually. This banking model is not unique. There are now more than 30 branchless banking projects rolling out around the world. And ANZ is pleased to be adding Cambodia to the list. 6

7 Conclusion So while there will always be a place for corporate responsibility and charitable donations, there is great potential for investment in sustainable business opportunities. These initiatives can be a win-win situation for all stakeholders the communities, customers, staff and shareholders. The projects I have shared with you today are the kinds of innovations that have contributed to ANZ being recently assessed as the No. 1 bank globally on the Dow Jones Sustainability Index for the second year in a row. Thank you. 7