MORELIA, Mexico-Credit unions here have turned to high-tech personal digital assistants (PDAs) in an attempt to bring financial services to rural, marginalized areas of Mexico. The pilot effort is being led by the World Council of Credit Unions (WOCCU) and Caja Morelia Valladolid, one of Mexico's largest credit unions.
The PDAs enable credit union field officers to transmit account data through cell phone towers to the credit union's central database in real time while visiting members in remote rural communities, according to WOCCU, which said the new technology reduces the risk of error in manual record keeping on field visits.
"In rural areas of Mexico, people have few options for access to financial services," said Brian Branch, WOCCU's executive vice president and chief operating officer. "Branch offices and ATMs do not have the population density or infrastructure to support them, but cell phone signals extend deep into the rural areas. The use of PDAs enables the credit unions to reach much deeper into the rural areas to provide financial services to people who have previously never had access."
Field officers previously recorded transactions manually in Caja Morelia's accounting books and in members' passbooks, then took the records back to the credit union to process. Through PDA technology, handheld printers immediately produce receipts while member accounts are updated in real time.
WOCCU plans to increase its PDA distribution to the other credit unions participating in the program over the next year.
