Electronic Banking brings the potential to extend low cost virtual bank accounts to a large number of currently un-banked individuals worldwide. This note discusses how falling costs of technology and competition and the ability of electronic banking solutions to offer customers an enhanced range of services at a very low cost is driving change. While discussing the technical options chosen for the development of an electronic banking this note takes into account the customer perspective – the customer value proposition; the institutional perspective – the business case; and the local environment for electronic banking. It further explores the options for microfinance programmes and lists the general principles derived from The Virtual Conference on Electronic Banking for the Poor.