Banglalink, Bangladesh’s second largest mobile operator, with 24m customers and a 28 per cent market share, has launched a mobile insurance premium collection service using Comvivas mobiquity Mobile Financial Services platform, in a country where 87 per cent of the population is unbanked.

Branded ‘Mobile Cash Insurance Pay’, the service has been launched in partnership with Jiban Bima Corporation (JBC), the country’s largest life insurance company. This is the first time a S. Asian mobile services provider has launched an insurance service linked to the mobile wallet.

Banglalink customers can now pay their insurance premium by simply dialing a USSD service code: *777#. Non-Banglalink customers and non-mobile users can also pay their JBC insurance premium at Banglalink-operated Mobile Cash points. The service means customers no longer have to stand in queues to make a payment. And as the market matures, Banglalink and JBC plan to launch new insurance products, specifically designed for the lower-income demographic. 
“Banglalink is committed to leveraging technology to bring a broad range of convenient, affordable financial services to customers,” says Solaiman Alam, head of mCommerce at Banglalink. “Our partnership with Comviva to provide m-Insurance payment services will drive higher uptake of insurance services among previously low-income underserved segments. The service represents another step ahead in broad-basing access to financial services in Bangladesh.”

Comviva’s mobiquity Mobile Financial platform uses the mobile phone as a convenient, cash-free and card-free payment and transaction medium, enabling storage and transfer of money to and from a secure, stored wallet account, resident on the phone or the server. The platform has so far seen more than 40 deployments across the globe.