'Banking is necessary, banks are not' - 7 quotes from Bill Gates on mobile banking

About 2.5 billion people globally have no access to bank accounts and formal financial services. Bill Gates, Co-chair of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation & Microsoft Corp. Co-founder, sees this as a big opportunity for technological innovation.

In his 2015 annual letter that is expected to be live tomorrow, one of the sectors he is betting on is mobile banking. While we wait for Gates annual letter, let’s share with you a few curated quotes on his thoughts on mobile banking. See if you agree with him.

“Digital technology provides a low-cost way for people in developing countries to send money to each other, buy and sell goods, borrow and save as long as the financial-regulation environment is supportive.”

“Digital payment systems can do more for equality in poor countries than they can do anywhere else, and we would like them to emerge there even if it takes longer in richer countries. We’re not waiting for it to trickle down as we do for many advanced technologies. That’s not good enough.”

“Rich people take for granted loans, insurance, banking and other financial services that poor people have little access to”

“We need banking but we don’t need banks anymore. Do you think someday we can open bank account or ask for loan without physically have to come to the bank?”

“When somebody has a mobile phone in Africa, you can see their whole transaction history. Would you rather have that, or an economy based on untraceable dollar bills?”

“The cost has to be extremely low and the volume has to be very high. We want the platform to be so flexible that the companies involved in the payment system don’t have to be the companies that make the loans,”

“All the platforms, whether it’s Apple’s or Google’s or Microsoft, you’ll see this payment capability get built in. That’s built on industry standard protocols, NFC. And these companies have all participated in getting those going. Apple will help make sure it gets to critical mass for all the devices.”