Prepaid debit cards and banking intention

PurposeThis study examines the relationship between prepaid debit card use and the intention to open a bank account within twelve months. The Transtheoretical Model (TTM) of Behavior Change helped to conceptualize one's stage in the process of changing from unbanked status if desired. The Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) provided a framework to examine factors that influence banking intention. Prepaid debit card use is considered a social norm as it is a popular alternative to banking, and these accounts have increasingly mimicked bank account features in recent years.Design/methodology/approachThree in-depth focus group interviews with low-income respondents were first conducted in 2012, which revealed a prolific use of prepaid debit cards. Most participants had previous banking history, and despite negative experiences, some requested information about banking terms and “free” banking. These themes and previous studies informed a TPB-based biprobit model, which was estimated using data of an unbanked sample from 2013, 2015 and 2017 waves of the US Survey of Unbanked and Underbanked Households.FindingsThough there was banking interest in the focus groups, no significant empirical association was found between recent prepaid debit card use and banking intention. Going deeper with another sample, we found that current cardholders were equally likely to have become recently banked or to be long-term unbanked but less likely to be long-term banked. Also, factors such as a more recent relationship with banks, use of other alternative financial services for transactions and credit, smartphone ownership, and trust increase banking intention.Research limitations/implicationsThe main limitation of the study is the cross-section quantitative data. Future research may track banking status over time, particularly as financial technology (fintech) evolves with alternatives that may influence banks and customers to adapt.Practical implicationsTo compete with “leapfrog” fintech banking alternatives, bank managers should consider utilizing customer segmentation to target “at-risk” customers and former customers with products and terms tailored to meet their banking needs. Banks can also tailor digital products to capture markets in banking desserts through mobile phones.Originality/valueThis mixed-methods study is unique in that it builds on insights from earlier in-depth interviews with real unbanked groups to examine a trend in prepaid debit card use and the impact on banking interest.

The mysteries of financial culture and financial habits

In this research I will investigate the financial culture among the students of the Technical Faculty of University of Szeged. I will analyse the results of questionnaires about the alumni’s’ financial culture and financial habits. I aim to learn more about the student’s financial knowledge, debit card usage, savings and loan habits. Also, I research how the students demographic and social background impact their financial decisions and habits.

Determinants of Financial Inclusion Gender Gap in Ethiopia: Evidence From Decomposition Analysis

In Ethiopia, the gender gap in financial inclusion is high, and the effect of socioeconomic variables on the gap is not well investigated. As a result, this study uses the World Bank’s Global Findex database from 2017 to analyze magnitude and determinants of the gender gap in financial inclusion in Ethiopia. Using Fairlie decomposition technique, we find statistically significant gender gap in all indicators of financial inclusion under study in Ethiopia. The result shows that the highest financial inclusion gender gap is observed in formal saving followed by formal account holding. The decomposition results show males are 16.5%, 16.6%, 8.9 %, 8.4 %t, and 5.8% more likely to have a formal account, formal saving, borrowing, emergency fund possibility, and debit card ownership, respectively. We further decompose these gaps using Daymont and Andrisani approach and the result reveals that differences in coefficients between males and females explain 57.7% in formal saving, 43.4% in formal account holding, and 110.9% in borrowing from formal financial institutions. About 54.2% of the total gender gap in possibility of raising emergcency fund is attributed to differences in characteristics/predictors between the two genders while gender gap in debit card holding is explained by the iteraction between differences in characterisctics and coefficients. Being older, more educated, and wealthier favor financial inclusion, with age, employment, and education having a greater effect. Furthermore, gaps in coefficients, productivity, and advantage to males and disadvantage to females aggravate the gender gap in financial inclusion in Ethiopia. Gender mainstreaming in economic activities to increase income, employment opportunities and education for females to bridge the gender gap in financial inclusion is important.

Detecting Phishing Website Using Machine Learning

A fraud attempt to get sensitive and personal information like password, username, and bank details like credit/debit card details by masking as a reliable organization in electronic communication. The phishing website will appear the same as the legitimate website and directs the user to a page to enter personal details of the user on the fake website. Through machine learning algorithms one can improve the accuracy of the prediction. The proposed method predicts the URL based phishing websites based on features and also gives maximum accuracy. This method uses uniform resource locator (URL) features. We identified features that phishing site URLs contain. The proposed method employs those features for phishing detection. The proposed system predicts the URL based phishing websites with maximum accuracy.

Mobile telephone delivered contingency management for encouraging adherence to supervised methadone consumption: feasibility study for an RCT of clinical and cost-effectiveness (TIES)

Background Prescription methadone or buprenorphine enables people with opioid use disorder to stop heroin use safely while avoiding withdrawal. To ensure methadone is taken as prescribed and to prevent diversion onto the illicit market, people starting methadone take their daily dose under a pharmacist’s supervision. Many patients miss their daily methadone dose risking withdrawal, craving for heroin and overdose due to loss of heroin tolerance. Contingency management (CM) can improve medication adherence, but remote delivery using technology may be resource-light and cost-effective. We developed an innovative way to deliver CM by mobile telephone. Software monitors patients’ attendance and supervised methadone consumption through an internet self-login at the pharmacy and sends reinforcing text messages to patients’ mobile telephones. A linked system sends medication adherence reports to prescribers and provides early warning alerts of missed doses. A pre-paid debit card system provides financial incentives. Methods A cluster randomised controlled trial design was used to test the feasibility of conducting a future trial of mobile telephone CM to encourage adherence to supervised methadone in community pharmacies. Each cluster (drug service/3 allied pharmacies) was randomly allocated to provide patient’s presenting for a new episode of opiate agonist treatment (OAT) with either (a) mobile telephone text message CM, (b) mobile telephone text message reminders, or (c) no text messages. We assessed acceptability of the interventions, recruitment, and follow-up procedures. Results Four drug clinics were approached and three recruited. Thirty-three pharmacists were approached and 9 recruited. Over 3 months, 173 individuals were screened and 10 enrolled. Few patients presented for OAT and high numbers were excluded due to receiving buprenorphine or not attending participating pharmacies. There was 96% consistency in recording medication adherence by self-login vs. pharmacy records. In focus groups, CM participants were positive about using self-login, the text messages, and debit card. Prescribers found weekly reporting, time saving, and allowed closer monitoring of patients. Pharmacists reported that the tablet device was easy to host. Conclusion Mobile telephone CM worked well, but a planned future trial will use modified eligibility criteria (existing OAT patients who regularly miss their methadone/buprenorphine doses) and increase the number of participating pharmacies. Trial registration The trial is retrospectively registered, ISRCTN 58958179.

BioPay: A Secure Payment Gateway through Biometrics

Due to emerging technological developments, major enhancements are taking place in the area of a secure and quick transaction. BioPay being a secure payment method is a one-step ahead. In the proposed methodology, there is no involvement of any credit or debit card or any other account information like OTP or CVV; it solely depends upon some unique identifying characteristic of a human known as biometrics. This work proposes a novel method that allows users to complete transactions quickly and securely using face and finger recognition. The transaction initiates with scanning face features and matching it with the database which in turn retrieves all the information associated with that customer account. After that, the system will scan the fingerprints of the subject and verify the transaction. This methodology can be implemented in ATMs and smartphones resulting in enhanced security and flexibility for payment purposes.

Code Based Proficient Transactions Based on QR Code with Biometric Authentication

Now a days the security dangers in the online ex-changes, ATM money withdrawals’ have expanded on a substan-tial scale. Individuals in the country zone are as yet ignorant of these dangers are as yet encountering many loses. Individuals unconscious of these dangers don't perceive that sharing their ATM PIN number, yet additionally sharing their credit/debit card number and CCV can likewise prompt the getting to of financial balance without their insight. In this way, in this proposed framework it is said that the credit/debit card number and CCV are being supplanted with dynamically produced QR codes. This QR code that is created can't be reproduced or hacked as effec-tively as the current framework. In the present framework OTP is sent to authenticate our transactions. This OTP is additionally added with Bio-metric confirmation like unique finger-print, iris information. This provides an additionally improved verification amid all the ATM exchanges. The execution on the above framework is basic as all the financial accounts are now linked with Aadhar card. And this can be implementing the QR code scanner alongside unique finger-print scanner and iris scanner in later stages. This never enables the unapproved clients to access or make any installments without the respective of the account holders. This expands the security level and furthermore enables the client to the exchange cash all the more securely. The pro-posed framework improves the security in the exchanges in our everyday life as no ATM withdrawal or Deposit should be possi-ble without the QR code and the Account holder themselves.