June 16, 2009 ATLANTA—In the Maldives Islands, isolation is part
of life. A trip to the bank, for instance, might involve getting
on a boat. Through necessity, as well as recent advances in
technology, however, the Maldives are now on the frontier of
mobile banking. “They're living on a very large number of small
islands, so there is no way that branch banks are going to be
put on each one of those islands. That really hinders their
development,” explains Mark Budnitz, the Bobby Lee Cook
Professor of Law at Georgia State University College of Law.
Last December, the Consultative Group to Assist the Poor (CGAP),
along with the World Bank, asked Budnitz to assist them in
drafting regulations, which have been submitted to the Maldives
Monetary Authority for its consideration. The regulations
Budnitz helped draft focus mainly on privacy protection,
unauthorized use of banking services, disclosures, and
transaction confirmation from banks. The project will give local
residents of this nation of nearly 1,200 island