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Recognizing the need to make modern technology available to a wide range of small- and medium-sized financial institutions as a means to improve their outreach, capacity and efficiency in serving a growing number of clients in, in particular, rural areas of developing countries, thereby providing essential support to increased agricultural production and food security, the Rural Finance Group of FAO started in 1988 the development of a low cost DOS-based software, known as the FAO MicroBanking System, designed to automate banking operations using basic PC equipment. In addition to the more obvious benefits in terms of lowering costs and improving accuracy of records, FAO also, and perhaps primarily, considered the software a human resources development programme since it was constructed taking into consideration good, standardised banking practices that conformed with existing rules and regulations of governments and supervisory bodies.
FAO and the German Agency for Technical Cooperation, GTZ, formed in the late nineties a partnership to develop a Windows-based version of the software. This new version, MBWin, short for the FAO/GTZ MicroBanking System for Windows (MBWin), is designed for a wide range of banks and financial institutions. As did the earlier DOS-based version, MBWin enables the user to keep and maintain accurate and reliable records of accounts, transactions and clients, reduce transaction costs of servicing small clients and suggest better banking practices, thus improving the outreach and efficiency of banking operations in rural areas. MBWin still operates on basic PC equipment. Because of its multi-tier architecture, MBWin is highly scaleable and can, therefore, cater to a wide range of users and be adapted to a variety of hardware configurations. It is modular in terms of applications and functionality. MBWin has modules for current accounts, savings accounts, time deposits, share accounts and loan accounts that interface with the general ledger (GL) module and the contact information module (CIF).
MBWin is a complete package. It includes a number of utilities to help with the migration of data and the translation of the system into new languages. The TKON utility helps with the conversion from manual operations. The built-in reports meet the basic internal and external reporting requirements of most financial organizations. However, the built-in report generator allows users to custom-build reports to meet user-specific requirements.
The software has a strong potential as a teaching tool for newcomers in the field of rural and micro finance, as it ensures that the design and development of financial products and services is done in the best way. Offering a standardised bank automation instrument also reduces the installation cost for users since it does not need to be individually customised for every new user. Economies of scale are also achieved in the field of training and technical support development.
MBWin is sold at a low price. The philosophy behind is that in addition to providing access to appropriate, modern technology at an affordable cost, resources can be left free for training purposes and for developing in-house technical support. |
