Credit Agricole Egypt announced that it would be expanding its mobile baking services, the Middle Eastern News service Bawaba reported last week. Credit Agricole Egypt (CAE) announced that they would increase their mobile banking services to include SMS alerts. Bawaba reported that customers would be able to receive short text messages periodically or following major events. The event-related notifications include events such as withdrawals, transfers, the maturation of securities, and overdraws. Mobile banking could revolutionize banking in the developing world. In 2010, the Financial Times reported that 70 percent of the population in BRIC countries—Brazil, Russia, India, and China—didn't hold bank accounts. The vast majority does, however, have mobile phones. The case is the same for North Africa. Egypt has an estimated 73 Million mobile phone subscribers; Morocco has more than one cell phone for each Moroccan. In small towns and cities, mobile banking could provide access to financial services absent before. Investors have already caught onto this trend. The Private Equity firm Actis completed a full buyout of the Egyptian microchip maker, Mediterranean Smart Cards Company, in the hopes it would have a foothold in the mobile banking market. In 2010, the Consultancy Arthur D. Little estimated the number of customer using mobile transaction banking to reach 290 Million by 2015. BM
