ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the concept of agents as facilitators and last mile distribution points of financial services to consumers at the bottom of the pyramid (BoP). The concept of agents is situated in agency banking as the underpinning framework for development, launch, and monitoring of agents as financial access points to traditional and mobile financial services. The chapter further provides an understanding of agency banking model, agent banking landscape, opportunities, and challenges of the agency banking model as well as the role of agents as marketing channel of mobile financial services while highlighting the key activities of agents and how they influence consumer behavior towards the adoption (purchase), use, and disuse of financial services. The chapter concludes by identifying approaches to making agency banking work for all stakeholders, as well as provides implications for theory and practice, and proposes direction for future research.
