The financial system is changing at a rapid pace, yet in many developing countries there are few banking options and people are forced to hide their money in secret places where it deteriorates because of inflation. However, mobile phones are very common in developing countries and new businesses are figuring out ways to leverage mobile technology and set up micro banking platforms. One such platform is Vumi, a company that turns currency into cell phone minutes, which can easily be transferred, to say a friend or relative, or easily turned back into hard currency. Stellar is another such platform and they leverage open source protocols in order to make money transferring easier and have also created their own currency that can be traded into any fiat, digital or notional (like cell phone minutes) currencies.
Mobile platforms bring banking to developing countries
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