Abstract:
System D is a newly coined term and is an economic perspective that is still being debated.
Robert Neuwirth has coined the term at the end of his ethnographic study over variety of
economies in developing countries. He has used unrecorded financial transactions to form
the basis of System D. Globally, access to technology by general populations is
tremendously increasing and this growth is being fuelled by the availability ofmobile phone
as a technology enabled device and the emergence of easy-to-use end user applications. The
research study presented in this thesis is focused on determining how mobile phone based
access to technologically advanced services could attract financial transactions of System D
in to formal banking institutions.
Apart from making a voice call, mobile phone technology is being used for many different
purposes. To-date, banking institutions are failing to offer on mobile phone based m-banking
something more than what they offer in the bank lobby. Presently, banks in Sri Lanka have
restricted their mobile phone based services only to account holders. This research work
indicate that if banking institutions can be innovative on mobile phone based services and
extend them to non-account holders, the quantum of economic opportunities to be
significant. In addition, such innovations will also help serving not only in attracting System
D financial transactions, but also will end up providing new ways for their account holders.
In this direction, this study produces a construct carrying few important elements. They
the factors that banking institution should take into consideration when they offer services on
mobile phone, the technological device that has the accessibility to majority.
In contrary to other cases around the world, such as Mpesa in Kenya, this study has found
that most ofthe people in Sri Lanka has the expectation that mobile money systems should
be run or administrated by banking institutions and not by mobile network operators. During
the study in addition to the research focus, the researcher came across many industries within
System D, which are cash rich, and with high potential to attract them into banks. However,
banks are yet to open their eyes on this Blue Ocean.
