mLakshmi Mobile Credit and Payments

Harsh Shetty of Firefish Networks Pvt. Ltd. in India will provide a service - mLakshmi - for merchants using SMS to give credit to low-income customers and reduce their credit risk. Merchants and customers will register with the service and customers will receive regular SMS notifications of their credit balances, which they can use to pay for goods. They will promote uptake by rewarding merchants both for using the service and for recruiting customers, and the customers with good credit repayment histories will be eligible for more credit. They will develop the software platform and run pilot studies to refine the software and evaluate uptake.