Bank-Genie, Cufa to roll-out digital banking for Myanmar credit unions

By Edil Corneille

Singapore-based Bank-Genie has partnered with Australia’s Cufa to implement digital banking solutions with 23 credit unions and customers in rural Myanmar. The solutions will be implemented through Bank-Genie’s product BanqIn, an all-in-one digital banking platform for microfinance institutions, credit unions and thrift banks. Cufa has been established by Australian credit unions for support in Southeast Asia and Pacific Regions.

Cufa is said to have been instrumental in helping communities in the Taikkyi Region of Myanmar to establish new credit unions and strengthen existing facilities.

By implementing BanqIn, all of the customer’s data will be migrated to a single platform, with each credit union set up as a branch. Each branch will have its own savings and loans products, with their own terms and conditions, and the BanqIn platform will bring everything together online, efficiently and securely.

Ram Sharma, CEO and Co-Founder of Bank-Genie, said: “…Through the BanqIn platform we are committed to removing barriers to financial inclusion and the technology we create will provide affordable access to those who need it the most.”

“We believe finance must be fair to all. With over two-thirds of the population in Myanmar having a mobile phone, just 10% have accessed digital services…”

Currently, the credit unions are heavily reliant on manual processes, and span between 3,000 to 4,000 customers. Through their partnership with BanqIn, Cufa will be introducing its DigiCUD programme. The programme will enable credit unions to facilitate loan origination, approvals, disbursements, and deposits digitally.

Cufa CEO, Dr Peter Mason, shared: “BanqIn’s cloud and subscription-based solutions have been designed with relatively small institutions at the forefront of conceptualisation, thereby empowering these credit unions to enable customers to start their own small businesses with ease. And with Cufa project officers teaching the crucial business skills such as financial literacy skills and digital adaptation to credit union staff and members, we intend to arm the Myanmarese with the right tools for success.”

The focus is very much on making a success of the initial roll-out, which will involve an initial five credit unions, followed by a network-wide roll out once all implementation, training, testing and evaluation is complete. Cufa’s goal is to eventually introduce the benefits of credit unions to an additional 90 villages in the country.

In March 2020 Aung Naing Toe Microfinance Co-Operative Society and BanqIn entered into a partnership. Aung Naing Toe Microfinance CoOperative Society was seeking to move from paper-based to digital, as part of their further expansion plans within unbanked and underbanked communities in Myanmar.

Bank-Genie has rolled-out its products in Ghana (replacing mainly paper-based and spreadsheet systems), in the Philippines (replacing very old DOS-based banking systems), and multiple projects in India (which had been using an old local core system with a decentralised database model), as well as in Kazakhstan, committed to ending poverty across the Asia-Pacific region through financial inclusion for all.