Mobile phones have increasingly become tools that consumers use for banking, payments, budgeting, and shopping. Given the rapid pace of developments in the area of mobile finance, the Federal Reserve Board began conducting annual surveys of consumers’ use of mobile financial services in 2011. This 78-page report, “Consumers and Mobile Financial Services” (March, 2015) examines trends in the adoption and use of mobile banking, payments, and shopping behavior and how the emergence of mobile financial services affects consumers’ interaction with financial institutions.
Girl Scouts Now Accepting Mobile Payments for Cookies
This year, girl scouts may get a bump in sales as the young scouts offer a novel way for customers to pay for their girl scout cookes. Thanks to its new mobile payment solution, the Girl Scouts of North East Ohio (GSNEO) will be ringing up cookie sales by accepting credit cards on their mobile phones.
The scouts will be trying out Intuit’s GoPayment mobile payment app for processing credit cards. “For this generation of girls in particular, running a business and being able to take payments anywhere with mobile apps like GoPayment will become second nature. We’re eager to see how sales will increase now that they take credit cards with GoPayment.”
To celebrate the Girl Scouts upcoming 99th anniversary in March, Intuit Inc. has equipped the Girl Scouts of North East Ohio with its GoPayment mobile payment app, including a free Intuit credit card reader, and reduced pricing on transaction fees. GoPayment provides them with an easy and affordable way to process credit card payments on their mobile devices while protecting sensitive credit card information with industry-leading data encryption.
“We’re glad to put the latest mobile technology in the hands of America’s future business leaders to help them increase cookie sales,” said Chris Hylen, vice president and general manager of Intuit’s Payment Solutions division. “For this generation of girls in particular, running a business and being able to take payments anywhere with mobile apps like GoPayment will become second nature. We’re eager to see how sales will increase now that they take credit cards with GoPayment.”
“We’ve lost out on sales in the past because many potential cookie customers did not carry cash,” said Marianne Love, director of business services for GSNEO. “But that’s all about to change with GoPayment. For the first time ever, we’ll be able to say yes to credit cards and process payments quickly right on our phones. And now that people can pay by credit card, it will make it easier to buy a bundle of cookies to donate to U.S. Troops overseas through our Gift of Caring service project called Operation: Sweet Appreciation.”
Intuit has extended the offer to all Girl Scout councils across the country for a limited time.
GoPayment was introduced two years ago as one of the first mobile payment services on the market. It was designed to help people easily and quickly get paid via their mobile devices wherever they do business. To protect credit card data, GoPayment does not store data on the phone. Data is also encrypted via the GoPayment app and the moment the card is swiped using a supported credit card reader. GoPayment is available for iOS, Android and Blackberry devices.
Source: Business Wire
HDFC Bank to Introduce Mobile Banking in Andhra Pradesh
HDFC bank has introduced mobile banking services in Andhra Pradesh, in south-eastern India. Approximately 26% of HDFC Bank’s customers visit branches and the rest depend on ATMs, the internet and mobiles for their banking needs. HDFC has 450 to 500 ATMs in AP and up to 20% of customers use internet banking.
via Voice & Data.
FICO to Offer Telrock SMS and Mobile Payment App to Customers
FICO, a provider of analytics and decision management technology, and London-based Telrock Communications Ltd., developer of mobile applications for banking, payments and debt management, today announced an agreement under which FICO will resell Telrock’s interactive text and smartphone applications around the world.
Telrock applications give FICO clients a new, fully secure mobile channel for communicating with customers, improving customer service and collecting payments.
“By offering Telrock mobile apps, we believe we can deliver help our clients in banking and other industries strengthen both their credit portfolios and their customer relationships.”
With Telrock’s unique mobile payment applications such as textDebit, customers can make payments by replying to SMS alerts or through smartphone apps. Telrock clients have reported that 40% of customers make payments within 30 minutes of receiving a mobile alert, and 74% make payments within 48 hours.
According to Telrock, payment arrangements managed by interactive text messaging have a completion rate of 63%, which is 20% above the average for non-SMS payment plans. Users of Telrock mobile applications include leading banks and utility companies, such as RBS, NatWest, British Gas, and Scottish and Southern Energy.
“Smartphone penetration is predicted to be 50% in 2012 and 80% by 2015, opening up a vast new communication channel for business,” said Telrock CEO Russell Robinson. “Younger generations in particular have shown a marked preference for receiving communications via SMS and apps over voice. Our agreement with FICO will enable credit grantors worldwide to leverage this channel to speed payments, cut collection costs and improve customer satisfaction.”
Telrock’s mobile-based services include sophisticated customer account management and protection functionality, as well as customer payment handling and alerting. Clients using these services can significantly reduce operating costs, achieve improved customer satisfaction and increase payment and contact rates, using a channel that costs less than traditional phone-based communications.
“Mobile payments have the potential to revolutionize banking by giving customers a quick, simple and secure channel for making sensitive payment arrangements,” said Mike Gordon, FICO’s general manager for Europe, the Middle East and Africa. “By offering Telrock mobile apps, we believe we can deliver help our clients in banking and other industries strengthen both their credit portfolios and their customer relationships.”
Source: Business Wire
China Unicom To Establish Mobile Payment Subsidiary
China Unicom is recruiting for 20 positions of its new subsidiary to be established, reports c114.net.
The new subsidiary is temporarily called China Unicom Payment. China Unicom started the commercial application of its mobile payment service in Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Chongqing.
via CapitalVue News.
Square Lowers Merchant Transaction Fee
As competition to sign up merchants heats up, mobile payment company Square has announced it will drop the $0.15 transaction fee that it had been charging customers. There will still be a charge ofz 2.75% of the transaction cost, but Square’s biggest competitor, Intuit GoPayment, currently charges 2.7% plus $0.15 per transaction, or 3.7% plus $0.15 if the credit card is entered manually.
via Business Insider.
Central Bank of Congo to Lanuch Mobile Banking Service
The Central Bank of Congo (BCC) has held a workshop on mobile banking services with the aim of making greater use of the technology.
According to the institution, mobile phones will soon play a key role in accessing banking services in Democratic Republic of Congo, as can be seen in other African countries such as Nigeria or Kenya.
Mobile Payments Venture Paydiant Closes $7.6 Million Funding Round from North Bridge Venture Partners and General Catalyst Partners
Paydiant, a new Boston-based mobile payments venture, today announced that it closed a $7.6M round of funding led by North Bridge Venture Partners and General Catalyst Partners. The investment will be used to accelerate product development, sales and marketing for Paydiant, which plans to formally launch later this year.
The company was co-founded by Chris Gardner, Kevin Laracey and Joe Paratore — three proven entrepreneurs in the e-billing, payments and mobile space that have collaborated before.
All three have significant early-stage and public company experience, having founded or played key roles in companies that were pioneers in both online and mobile payments, and other emerging markets. Jim Moran, General Partner at North Bridge and John Simon, Managing Director at General Catalyst have joined Paydiant’s Board of Directors.
“Enabling consumers to use their phones to make everyday purchases is a huge market opportunity,” said Chris Gardner, co-founder of Paydiant. “We have assembled a team who understand both the business and technology issues that must be addressed to create new mobile payments offerings for broad adoption.
This group has hands-on experience creating and operating successful online and mobile platforms that facilitate billions of dollars in payments for many of the world’s largest companies today. We are fortunate to partner with North Bridge and General Catalyst who also have deep expertise in both mobile and payment technologies.”
Laracey was co-founder and CEO of edocs, the leading online billing and payments company that was acquired by Siebel Systems (now part of Oracle) in 2005. At Siebel, he was the general manager of its self-service solutions group. Most recently, Laracey was a venture partner at Sigma Partners.
Gardner also worked at edocs where he served as vice president of products and marketing. After the acquisition by Siebel, he became the senior vice president of products and marketing at m-Qube, North America’s leading premium SMS mobile payments provider that was acquired by Verisign in 2006. Most recently, Gardner was the chief marketing officer at ExtendMedia, a digital media content delivery and commerce platform software company that was acquired by Cisco in 2010.
Joe Paratore was edocs’ vice president of engineering and technical services. After the acquisition by Siebel, he joined Gardner at m-Qube as the company’s senior vice president of technology operations. Paratore continued with Verisign and managed a large global staff and eight data centers as the general manager and vice president of technical operations and customer care for Verisign’s mobile payments and mobile messaging businesses.
Source: MarketWire
PayNearMe: Cash-based Mobile Payments
How does a cash-based remote payment platform work? And how in the world do you pay with cash using your cell phone? Companies like Square and Intuit have taken a fairly literal approach to mobile credit card payments by creating hardware that turns your mobile device into a credit card scanner, but you can’t exactly do the same thing for cash.
Danny Shader’s company, PayNearMe, proposes the next-best thing. The platform allows users to proceed through a typical online transaction, but instead of paying with a credit card or electronic check, they receive a receipt (they can receive it on their phone or print it out directly from their computer), which they can take to their nearby 7-11 to pay with cash.
via Vator.tv.
airtel Africa, Standard Chartered Bank and MasterCard Win Best Mobile Money Product or Solution Award
airtel Africa, Standard Chartered Bank and MasterCard Worldwide were honored for mobile payments innovation at the 16th Annual Global Mobile Awards held during Mobile World Congress (MWC) 2011. The recently launched virtual card product, developed in collaboration between airtel Africa, Standard Chartered and MasterCard, received top honors as the Best Mobile Money Product or Solution.
Honored by a panel of mobile industry experts, the virtual card product was recognized as an innovative mobile payments solution that will offer consumers in Kenya, and eventually across Africa, greater participation in the financial system through mobile commerce. In collaboration between airtel Africa and Standard Chartered, the virtual card product is powered by MasterCard inControl (TM) technology and enables more people to connect to the global marketplace through their mobile phones.
Andre Beyers, airtel Africa’s chief marketing officer, and Daniel Monehin, area head, East & West Africa and Indian Ocean Islands, MasterCard Worldwide, received the award on behalf of the three companies at the Global Mobile Awards 2011 ceremony held at the Fira De Barcelona in Montjuïc, Barcelona, Spain.
The virtual card product enables airtel Africa customers in Kenya to use their mobile phone to make online purchases from MasterCard merchants around the world. The simplified online transaction works in the following way: each time an airtel customer is shopping online he or she will be able to request a single use shopping card number. airtel money services will then generate a special 16-digit number that enables the completion of the transaction. On completion of the transaction, a confirmation message will be sent to the consumer’s mobile phone. The single use feature of the virtual card product provides the consumer with a convenient and secure online shopping experience.
“We partnered with Standard Chartered and MasterCard in a joint effort to create affordable and innovative mobile services for consumers across Africa,” said Beyers. “It is a tremendous honor to be recognized by our peers in the mobile industry for the virtual card product, which we hope will set a new industry standard for mobile payments.”
“We are extremely pleased that this concept has been selected for the GSMA 2011 Best Mobile Money Product or Solution Award. This global award is fitting testimony to telecom & banking companies in Africa, who are the ‘agents-of-change’ in the development of mobile finance and commerce,” said Jaydeep Gupta, Standard Chartered Bank’s regional head, Distribution & Alternate Channels for Africa, NGL, MESA & India. “We are proud of our unique partnership with airtel Africa and MasterCard. Together we will continue to deliver innovative payment solutions across our geographies.”
Said MasterCard’s Monehin, “Consumers are increasingly reliant on mobile technology at each step of their lives – from staying connected with their personal networks to making payments on-the-go. We joined hands with airtel Africa and Standard Chartered to create the virtual card product that not only enhances people’s purchasing experiences, but also creates a financially inclusive mobile platform for people in Africa. We believe that innovations like the virtual card product will help ensure the long-term growth and sustainability of mobile commerce in Africa. We are committed to improving industry collaboration and fostering innovation as well as building interoperability across closed loop systems in Africa and abroad.”
Source: MasterCard
Major Mobile Operators Worldwide Announce Commitment to NFC Technology
Many of the world’s leading operators, including América Móvil, Axiata Group Berhad, Bharti, China Unicom, Deutsche Telekom, KT Corporation, MTS, Orange, Qtel Group, SK Telecom, Softbank Mobile, Telecom Italia, Telefónica, Telekom Austria Group, Telenor and Vodafone, have voiced their commitment to implementing Near Field Communications (NFC) technology, and intend to launch commercial NFC services in select markets by 2012.
“NFC is perhaps best known for its role in enabling mobile payments, but its applications go far beyond that,” said Franco Bernabè, Chairman, GSMA and CEO, Telecom Italia. “NFC represents an important innovation opportunity, and will facilitate a wide range of interesting services and applications for consumers, such as mobile ticketing, mobile couponing, the exchange of information and content, control access to cars, homes, hotels, offices car parks and much more.”
The market potential for NFC is significant—according to Frost & Sullivan, the total payment value for NFC globally will reach more than €110 billion in 2015 – and momentum behind the technology is growing rapidly. To address this opportunity and to provide valuable new services to mobile users worldwide, the operator community is focused on driving the standardised deployment of mobile NFC, using the SIM as the secure element to provide authentication, security and portability.
To achieve this, the GSMA will develop the necessary certification and testing standards to ensure global interoperability of NFC services. This interoperability is critical to the widespread adoption of NFC, enabling users to benefit from NFC services around the world, regardless of operator network or device type.
“As we have seen, the adoption of different approaches to NFC will only serve to fragment the market,” continued Bernabè. “By uniting around a single standardised approach to mobile NFC and by collaborating across the entire ecosystem, our industry will continue to develop the compelling services that customers demand.”
via World’s Leading Mobile Operators Announce Commitment to NFC Technology ~ GSM World.