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Internet banking subscriber base drops 10.9%  

Malawi’s Internet banking performance has decreased as the total value of transactions declined by 60.3 percent to K4.2 billion in February 2015 from K10.5 billion in January 2015.

In the March 2015 National Payment System report released recently, Reserve Bank of Malawi (RBM) has said the subscriber base declined by 10.9 percent in February to 37 416 from 41 999 in January 2015 while the total volume dropped by 47.9 percent from 25 181 to 13 107. online-banking

Paradoxically, this is happening at a time Malawi launched National Switch (Nat Switch), a shared switch platform to connect all the country’s commercial banks and interconnect banking operations and financial transactions through ATMs, POS devices, mobile banking, e-banking transactions, Visa and MasterCard gateway and other over-the- counter transactions.

Earlier, Nat Switch steering committee chairperson William Kaunda said the switch brings a lot of efficiencies in the payments industry  adding that transactions are switched through to another bank instantly thereby providing instant authorisation of such transactions.

Regardless of this decline, RBM said the newly launched financial infrastructure, automated transfer system (ATS), central securities depository (CSD) and Nat Switch remained stable during the period under review saying no major system disruptions were experienced.n

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3 Comments

  1. Stupid charges are the reason. I live in UK, I pay nothing for internet and mobile banking because banks know they save a lot by not having too many branches and overcrowded banking halls. On top of paying about an equivalent of $2 every month for NB banknet online, I am charged $1 for every transaction online. If I have transferred money to relatives 8 times in a month, which happens a lot, I pay a total of $10 in a month. That nonsense cannot happen in UK and other developed countries. Where are the regulators? That’s why banks in Malawi are making obscene profits at the expense of poor Malawians.

  2. poor malawi! bank managers don’t appreciate how internet banking has simplified banking services and transactions elsewhere. the malawian banks should be forward looking and motivate customers to use online banking services more and more, for example by reducing service charges. in malawi banking halls are too congested; one spends more than 3 productive hours just to make a simple deposit or withdraw more than the daily ATM limit. its a pity and mockery to the same customer who by virtue of operating an account gives these banks business.

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