Building an agent network to do cash-in-cash-out transactions, using Mojaloop
Meet OneLoad
OneLoad operates an agent network of 25,000+ retailers, empowering them to offer digital financial and non-financial services from various banks that already exist in Pakistan through their app-based platform.
What they want
A number of banks in Pakistan offering mobile financial services want to utilize the OneLoad agent network to do cash-in-cash-out transactions, but OneLoad needs an easier way for banks to connect to their network.
What they built
OneLoad demonstrated a workflow where an individual from any bank can redeem a voucher at a OneLoad agent.
How Mojaloop helps
Mojaloop offers the ability to simplify this challenge and building L1P-aligned payment systems will help them to financially including the underserved Pakistani population.
Use Case
The Opportunities and Challenges
The overall application to utilize Mojaloop to create an interoperable agent network has been discussed and presented by Carbon and Grameenphone, however the primary challenges faced by the OneLoad team are significantly different and relate to the regulatory and enabling environment in Pakistan. In detail:
Resistance to using Open Source Software among Financial institutions
The OneLoad team has significant experience working with Pakistani financial institutions and they identified that the comfort level of working with open source software is not nearly as developed as in other markets. How trust is built, and who is responsible for building that trust is an open question they have on the ecosystem, but for many banks, their current IT security policies explicitly prohibit the use of Mojaloop as an open source project. A quote from a product manager from a Pakistani bank: “We tried to bring in Mifos once and our IT security policy shot it down.”
Regulatory Barriers
The Pakistani Central Bank requires HSM encryption for the storage of pins and passwords and it’s unclear how/if Mojaloop is equipped to handle this and how they can make a case to the regulator and to any bank participants they would be in compliance with the regulatory regime. Al-Falah bank deployed Fundamo several years ago and the regulator required HSM to secure the pin codes. Fundamo supported both hardware and software-based security and was able to support HSM.
Technical Capacity
The technical capacity of banks in Pakistan isn’t well equipped to use the technology Mojaloop is built on; specifically Kubernetes and NodeJS are two technologies that might be difficult to source the right level of engineering talent internally to build and deploy solutions built on these technologies.
