name equitel type private subsidiary industry telecommunications headquarters nairobi kenya area served kenya products mobile money & telephony parent equity group holdings limited website homepage finserve africa limited trading as equitel 1 is a mobile virtual network operator mvno in the kenya . it is a wholly owned subsidiary of equity group holdings limited and is using the airtel kenya 2 network as its carrier . contents 1 overview 2 history 3 other locations 4 equity group holdings limited 5 see also 6 references overview edit the equitel brand was hailed by equity group as the next big thing i.e. equity 3.0 . the move was to give equity bank the opportunity to continue its mission of furthering financial inclusion and innovative service offerings for all kenyans by presenting their financial services offering on to a single platform which will make banking services more accessible flexible convenient and more affordable . airtel kenya on their part stated that the partnership would increase their revenue by up to 10 % . 3 the brand made equity bank the first financial institution in africa to offer a full banking suite through an mvno . history edit equity bank through its subsidiary finserve africa limited received its mvno licence on 11 april 2014 along with tangaza money and zioncell kenya . all which would run on airtel kenya s network a move that was opposed by the consumer federation of kenya safaricom and telkom kenya 4 for the bank the move was aimed at lowering their transaction costs by up to 47 % as well as an added revenue stream by providing money transfer service and other telco services to their 8.7 million customers . 5 due to the requirement to have a sim card to access the service users would therefore need an additional mobile phone or dual sim phone . equity bank overcame this challenge by adopting the use of 0.1 millimetres thick ultra slim sim cards from taisys solutions using technology originally developed in china . 6 the ultra slim sim cards are placed at the back of normal sim cards therefore tackling this challenge effectively . 7 this ultra slim sim cards would also come with near field communication nfc capability that enables them to be swiped on the point of sale devices or atm 8 thus converting a mobile phone into a credit or debit card . market leader safaricom wrote to the communications authority of kenya cak challenging the use of ultra slim sim cards stating that they could expose their subscribers to intercepted communication and financial fraud on m pesa service . 9 despite this finserve africa were granted a one year trial period through the 0763xxxxxx prefix . 10 on 22 september 2014 safaricom stated that it would review its legal commitments to m pesa customers who opt to use the equitel overlay sim cards . 11 in addition the cck required finserve africa to make a written undertaking to compensate mobile phone subscribers for any losses they may incur during the one year trial of its thin sim putting to test the company s assertion that the technology is safe . on 14 october 2014 equity bank kenya started issuing ordinary sim cards for telecommunication and mobile banking services to its 8.7 million customers across the country . 1 other locations edit equity bank group plans to roll out their mobile virtual network in uganda tanzania and rwanda through their partnership with airtel africa . equity group holdings limited edit equity group holdings limited is a large financial services group in east africa . as of march 2014 update the group had an asset base valued at over us 3.45 billion kes 295 billion with a total customer base in excess of 8.7 million in the region the group serves . 12 the companies that comprise the equity bank group include the following 13 equity bank kenya limited nairobi kenya equity bank rwanda limited kigali rwanda equity bank south sudan limited juba south sudan equity bank tanzania limited dar es salaam tanzania equity bank uganda limited kampala uganda procredit bank congo sarl kinshasa democratic republic of the congo equity consulting group limited nairobi kenya equity insurance agency limited nairobi kenya equity nominees limited nairobi kenya equity investment services limited nairobi kenya finserve africa limited nairobi kenya equity group foundation nairobi kenya shares of the stock of equity group holdings limited the parent company of finserve africa limited are listed on the nairobi stock exchange nse under the symbol eqty . the group s stock is also cross listed on the uganda securities exchange use under the symbol ebl . see also edit equity bank group equity bank kenya equity bank rwanda equity bank south sudan equity bank tanzania equity bank uganda mpesa references edit a b equity issuing free equitel sim cards to customers . business daily . nation media group . 14 october 2014 . retrieved 15 october 2014 . equity bank to launch mvno services in july equity bank launches mvno strategy equity gets special window to enter mobile telecoms market equity seeks to halve transaction costs with mobile licence skin sim technology a serious challenge for safaricom equity bank goes for special sim cards for its mobile money service equity to enable phone use in atm withdrawal sim card makers to offer expert advice on equity case equity bank group financial results press release 30 july 2014 safaricom sounds warning to users of equity s thin sim kangethe kennedy 17 april 2014 . equity group in 20 percent profit rise to sh3 .8 billion . capital fm online nairobi via allafrica.com . retrieved 17 april 2014 . members of equity bank group v t e equity group holdings limited banking equity bank kenya limited equity bank rwanda limited equity bank south sudan limited equity bank tanzania limited equity bank uganda limited procredit bank drcongo financial services equity consulting group equity insurance agency equity investment bank equitel foundation equity group foundation board of directors peter munga chairman benson wairegi vice chairman james mwangi ceo employees 6 000 2014 stock symbol kn eqty website www.equitybankgroup.com retrieved from https en.wikipedia.org w index.php title finserve africa limited & oldid 737741397 categories mobile virtual network operatorstechnology companies established in 2014telecommunications companies of kenya2014 establishments in kenyahidden categories use dmy dates from september 2014articles containing potentially dated statements from march 2014all articles containing potentially dated statements navigation menu personal tools not logged intalkcontributionscreate accountlog in namespaces article talk variants views read edit view history more search navigation main pagecontentsfeatured contentcurrent eventsrandom articledonate to wikipediawikipedia store interaction helpabout wikipediacommunity portalrecent changescontact page tools what links hererelated changesupload filespecial pagespermanent linkpage informationwikidata itemcite this 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