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Great inisghts and thoughts regarding the India market. Particularly interesting is the history of micro loans. Certainly micro loans have been around for some time and are in existence in many place. What is innovative with M-Shwari is the digitisation of the channel, through the use of the phone as the distribution model.

According to Capital FM M-Shwari in Kenya charges a one off loan fee of 7.5% and provides an APR on savings of 5%. Whilst the APR on the one off fee may appear high it appears highly competitive with similar offerings

It may come as an acute coincidence that Visa have recruited their new CTO from the gaming industry.

Gaming and Social are underpinning user experiences with deep connections to cognitive theory and the things that people are incredibly hungry for.

Decades of de-personalizing customer service has left consumers craving relationships where they are viewed as individuals, have an opportunity to share their individual stories and are treated in a much more transparent, personal way. 

As technology continues to place distance between the customer and the front line customer service peole within the bank the job of creating connected customer experiences will get harder and harder, opening up cracks in their loyalty along the way.

Overcoming these challenges will take a reset on the things customers want from their banks. Those that get it right will be able to compete on purpose and experience. Those that dont will compete on price.

I value the dialogue John

My sense is that the higher the income, the more strategic and long term the focus and thinking becomes. In Maslow's world this would be reflected in moving beyond fundamental physiological needs towards creating plans for greater security and self esteem. Thus present bias has less impact when referring to finance and therefore income.

Of course, if the high income earner has a physiological dependency, on for example nicotine, the Present Bias comes into full force and until they are adequately incented, their longer term focus becomes distorted in favour of the immediate need for fulfillment. Comfort eating might be another example .... but thats for another forum

From a biological and evolutionary point of view, social animals have been hard wired for play for millions of years. This is not a new phenomenon but rather an incredibly ancient one that is being rediscovered as we enter the new age of social media.

It is an age that Maslow predicted when he so accurately pointed out that peoples need to connect is greater than their need to compete and one that we should have got a sense of in 2003 when, as a species, we spent 9 billion hours playing Windows Solitaire.

Let the games begin.