TIO - Building a network of financial services for the unbanked consumer
This entry has been selected as a finalist in the
Banking on Social Change: Seeking Financial Solutions for All competition.
TIO provides financial services that are geared to help low-income people better manage their cash flow, improve their accessibility to real-time financial services and provide them with a way to improve their attractiveness to a traditional financial institution.
About You
Location
Project Street Address
Project City
Project Province/State
Project Postal/Zip Code
Project Country
Your idea
Year initiative/program began:
2007
Field of work
Banking/Financial Services
If Field of Work is "Other" please define in 1-2 words below (and explain in detail in the entry form):
Service / Activity focus (If "other" please explain in entry form)
Transaction
Year organization founded (yyyy)
1997
YouTube Upload
Project URL
Positioning of your initiative on the Mosaic of Solutions™ diagram:
Which of these barriers is the primary focus of your work?
Lack of access to markets or products
Which of the principles is the primary focus of your work?
Lower the entry threshold
If you believe some other barrier or principle should be included in the mosaic, please describe it and how it would affect the positioning of your initiative in the mosaic
This field has not been completed. (333 words or less)
Name Your Project
TIO - Building a network of financial services for the unbanked consumer
Describe Your Idea
TIO provides financial services that are geared to help low-income people better manage their cash flow, improve their accessibility to real-time financial services and provide them with a way to improve their attractiveness to a traditional financial institution.
Innovation
What is your signature innovation, your new idea, in one sentence?
TIO provides financial services that are geared to help low-income people better manage their cash flow, improve their accessibility to real-time financial services and provide them with a way to improve their attractiveness to a traditional financial institution.
Describe what makes your idea unique—different from all others in the field.
First some background, there are 100 million people in the United States that are either unbanked or under-banked. These people do not have access or do not qualify for traditional banking services yet they still have the same financial needs as a banked consumer. They need to pay their bills, transfer money, buy everyday things and make electronic purchases just like you and me.
TIO is easy to access. Consumers can access our services at 1,300 self-service kiosk locations and 10,600 over-the-counter locations across 46 states in convenience stores, retail stores and corporate stores. We are always working to expand our network because we believe that all people have to right to access the right financial services for them. Convenient, safe, and secure access to services that are on-demand.
TIO provides a full set of financial solutions. We provide access to over 600 services including expedited bill payment (wireless, cable, gas, electricity and water), wireless top up and pin purchases, prepaid credit card sales and loads, and money transfer. TIO also recently launched its own prepaid MasterCard which allows our consumers to save their money, make purchases over the phone or online – places where cash can’t go.
Easy access to a variety of financial services is important for the unbanked and underserved consumer. They too need to get by in life. At TIO we believe that we can help people not only get by in life, but also get ahead. We recently deployed a new membership program called MyTIO. With MyTIO, consumers can quickly access their accounts, view balance owing, view past transactions and reprint receipts for their records. All people should have the right to manage their financial transactions.
Building our customer’s credit file is the next step for TIO. Most unbanked or underserved consumer has either a thin credit file or no credit file at all. No credit makes it difficult for them to get mortgages, get financing for a vehicle purchase – purchases that most of us take for granted. TIO wants to help these people get access to traditional banking services.
How do you implement your innovation and apply it to the challenge/problem you are addressing?
TIO’s customers can access financial services at any one of our 11,900 locations. Each location is analyzed and selected based on proximity and relevance to our customer. We want to make sure that each location is convenient and in a store where our customer already shops.
TIO has 3 ways of delivering access to our financial services, our self-service kiosks, our online clerk assisted express website, and through software integrations. Each method allows TIO to be flexible in identify the most economical solution for our location partners and their distribution points.
Do you have any existing partnerships, and if so, how did you create them?
At TIO, we’ve created many partnerships within the private sector. We partner with utility, cable, and wireless companies (AT&T, Cricket, Cox Cable, Arizona Public Service, and Sempra Energy) so that our customers can pay all their monthly bills. We partner with companies that process transactions and offer financial services (Netspend, VISA, and MasterCard) so that our customers can have access to products that are outside of our core offering. All of these companies have one thing in common, they offer product that low-income people could benefit from.
We partner with convenience stores, retail stores, non-traditional financial centers where we have placed our terminals. Partnerships with companies like ExxonMobil, Circle-K, and ACE, are important to placing our terminals in the right location for easy access.
We have also partnered with the Center for Financial Services Innovation to learn from the research they’ve conducted on unbanked and under-banked consumers.
TIO Networks has partnered with some of the biggest billers and service providers in North America to assist them with their in-person payment collection strategies while helping the underserved cash paying demographic have access to cost effective, convenience, safe and secure bill payment services.
In which sector do these partners work? (Check all that apply)
Citizen sector (nonprofits, NGOs) .
Impact
Provide one sentence describing your impact/intended impact.
We provide low-income, unbanked consumers access to financial services that are focused on helping people get out of financial troubles and stay afloat.
Please list any other measures of the impact of your innovation.
Unbanked and under-served people typically have little thin credit files or no credit files at all. They also have no access to financial tools that can help them save money or make purchases. TIO’s innovation aims to rectify these challenges.
Expedited posting gives our customers the chance to pay their bills on time up to the last minute. They can make a lump sum payment on the day their payment is due, or they can make small payments throughout the month including the last day. This helps our customers manage their cash flows and keep the lights on.
Our prepaid products give our customer a way to save money. By loading a small monthly payment on your prepaid card, consumers can save to make that larger purchase.
Our money transfers give our customers a chance to send money back to loved ones. Many Americans have family in other countries that have limited access to money or in emergency and need to pay their medical bills.
Here are some samples of the impact we’ve had on our customers.
“As a single mother, I can’t thank you enough. You save me time. This is a really good machine! It’s very convenient for because it’s near my work. I love this thing!” -Ramona, Tucson, Arizona
“I would like to thank you for making it so much easier for me to pay my bills. Great idea and I hope it lasts forever.” -Kathy, Charlotte, North Carolina
“This is a very convenient system. I especially appreciate it being available until 9pm. Thanks.” –Phillip, Albuquerque, New Mexico
Does your innovation address and/or change banking regulations?
TIO has been innovating and working with banking regulations ever since the company first began.
Our reverse vault cash process was the first time that cash entering into a customer facing, self-service device was processed real-time and considered bank owned vault cash pursuant to the Federal Reserve Board Regulation D, Section 204.2 (K). TIO has co-authored a pending patent in regards for our Reverse Vault Cash Process with Palm Desert National Bank, now owned by US Bank.
How many people does your innovation serve or plan to serve? Exactly who will benefit from your innovation?
To date, we have processed over $1.4 Billion in payments through 18 Million transactions.
Our innovation is currently serving 560,000 financial transactions per month over a network of 11,900 locations.
This Entry is about (Issues)
Sustainability
Financing source
How is your initiative financed (or how do you expect your initiative will be financed)?
TIO is financed by is cash flow from operations and if necessary we are financed through public funding. TIO Networks is a publicly traded company on the Toronto Stock Exchange.
If known, provide information on your finances and organization:
Audited annual reports available upon request.
TIO currently has over 50 employees working both in the United States and Canada.
What are the main financial barriers and how do you plan to address them?
This field has not been completed. (83 words or less)
Aside from financial sustainability, how do you plan to grow the initiative?
TIO is constantly working to grow our initiative. Our efforts include both increasing the number of accessible locations and increasing our available services. We are also working on growing the consumer awareness through marketing initiatives.
The Story
Please select one
What was the motivation or defining moment that led to the creation of this innovation? Tell us the story.
When TIO Networks (formerly called Info Touch Technologies) began operations in 1997, the company was focused on delivering self-service kiosk solutions.
TIO focused on providing self-service products within convenience stores. These services included pay-per-use internet access, a maps and directions tool, a coupon tool, bill payment, and a variety of other services. The results at the time were remarkable. Bill payment had the highest traction and success. As our bill payments grew, TIO started to question who this customer was and what their needs were.
Today, TIO is still working with the same customer and we have expanded our service offering.
Please provide a personal bio of the social innovator behind this initiative.
In August of 1997, Hamed co-founded Info Touch Technologies as the founding CEO and architect of the company’s business plan, focused the company 100% on using the kiosk tool as a vehicle for delivering digital content and all of its possibilities to the public domain. At the core of this strategy was the need for a robust, secure and highly manageable software platform that could reliably manage these self-service, interactive, customer facing terminals.
Hamed has transitioned the Company into a payment solution provider that specializes in delivering bill payment and other financial products to the unbanked consumer through a variety of automated self-service and clerk assisted payment processing methodologies.
Hamed has led a life of volunteering and devoting time to the non-profit sector. Recently much of his personal time has been working with organizations that are focused on breaking the cycles of homelessness, poverty, and addiction in the Vancouver East Side.
a) Please identify the individuals that your innovation benefits (Please check all that apply)
Producers .
b) Do you help the people you serve to buy goods or services using financial innovation? If so, how?
This field has not been completed. (166 words or less)
c) Do you help the people you serve to sell goods or services using financial innovation? If so, how?
This field has not been completed. (166 words or less)
 | 184 weeks agoTIO - Building a network of financial services for the unbanked consumer has been chosen as a finalist in Banking on Social Change: Seeking Financial Solutions for All. |
| 184 weeks agoAmelia Forrest Kaye said: Thank you for submitting your entry! Your innovation successfully identifies and addresses a core challenge our competition is trying ... about this Competition Entry. - read more > |
