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.
Serbia’s Telenor Introduces New PlatiMo Mobile Payment System
Serbian network operator Telenor has introduced a new mobile payment service called PlatiMo. The service allows customers to pay bills and perform other financial services via their mobile phones directly from their bank accounts.
The operator has selected an m-payment offering comprised of G&D’s SIM cards and SmartTrust Over-the-Air server software, and Halcom’s mobile payment system. Telenor has worked closely with the four banks involved—Komercijalna bank, Erste Bank, Credit Agricole and Raiffeisen Bank—to provide a state-of–the-art mobile payment system to their customers. These four banks as a group serve more than 50 percent of the Serbian market.
Telenor and the partner banks are currently are currently working to sign up merchants to the system. Telenor will soon be able to offer the option of paying utility bills for electricity, cable TV, water, Internet and other services through mobile payment. Moreover, Telenor and the partner banks are also aiming to expand mobile payments to ticketing, offering users the opportunity to pay for cinema, theater and concert tickets, taxi rides, and public transport.
Currently, subscribers using the PlatiMo application can pay mobile phone bills issued by Telenor, send money to other PlatiMo users, make online purchases, buy airplane tickets via the call center of Serbia’s largest national air company JAT Airways, and top up their prepaid accounts in the Telenor network.
After the promotional period, which ends in April, 2011, new banks will be introduced to the PlatiMo system, increasing the potential customer base.
What is more, thanks to cooperation with e-government, all PlatiMo users will have access to e-government services through the system and will be able to order personal documents, such as birth or citizenship certificates.
PlatiMo is simple-to-use, versatile and suitable for all commercially available mobile phones. It also meets the highest security standards for electronic payment transactions: The phones use special WPKI (Wireless Public Key Infrastructure) SIM cards from G&D, which provide an electronic certificate issued by the Halcom certificate agency. During the encrypted transactions, data are exchanged between the SIM card and a G&D SmartTrust Mobile Transaction Gateway server which is connected to PlatiMo’s four participating banks via Halcom’s 123 Pay! platform.
Consumers are protected in the event of cell phone loss or theft, since payments can only be made by entering a special additional PIN—the sPIN—which is different from the cell phone’s SIM PIN. Such security technology has been widely used in electronic banking for years and so far these systems have not seen any cases of misuse or fraud.
Source: Virtual Press Office (VPO)
Sprint Selects BilltoMobile to Provide Direct to Mobile Billing for Sprint Customers
BilltoMobile has announced a Direct Mobile Billing Gateway Servce Provider agreement with Sprint, which will allow Sprint customers to charge online purchases directly to their Sprint bill. Once implementation is complete in the coming months, merchants and payment resellers using BilltoMobile’s mobile payment service will be able to offer this payment option to Sprint customers.
“On the heels of our Sprint Mobile Wallet launch, we are pleased to work with BilltoMobile to present an additional payment option that will allow Sprint subscribers to conveniently and safely complete purchases on the Web,” said Kevin McGinnis, vice president of Sprint Product Platforms. “Our agreement with BilltoMobile represents another step forward in our efforts to provide our customers with the most innovative services and applications on the market.”
“Partnering with Sprint represents a major milestone for BilltoMobile, as it expands our reach to a vast majority of wireless subscribers in the U.S.,” said Denise Archer, vice president of carrier partnerships, BilltoMobile. “BilltoMobile is the only mobile payments gateway that can offer online digital goods and services merchants the technology infrastructure and broad consumer reach necessary to provide customers with a viable mobile payment option.”
The agreement with Sprint extends BilltoMobile’s overall reach to more than 240 million wireless subscribers in the U.S. across multiple carriers. These customers will now have instant access to BilltoMobile’s exclusive Direct Mobile Billing platform, which offers a simple, secure payment option that requires no registration, no set up, no application or downloads and no association with other financial instruments such as credit or bank cards. Purchases are completed in seconds using a two-step authentication process, and customers don’t have to expose any sensitive account information while using the service.
Through BilltoMobile, merchants and authorized resellers receive significantly lower carrier-inclusive processing fees, and a more robust approach to mobile payment processing. BilltoMobile’s Direct Mobile Billing platform involves real-time direct connections with the carrier’s billing system, advanced carrier-direct authentication systems and a direct real-time connection between the BilltoMobile service and the carrier’s customer care systems.
Source: MarketWire
Isis Mobile Payments Group Signs First Merchants
The new Isis mobile-payments venture has recruited some merchants as it builds the acceptance side of its network, the Isis executive overseeing the merchant effort said on Wednesday.
“We do have signed merchants at this point,” Jim Stapleton, head of sales and account management at Isis and a veteran of AT&T Inc., tells Digital Transactions News. Stapleton, however, refuses to identify them, saying announcements would be made when the merchants and Isis are ready.
via Digital Transactions.
Record Attendance at Mobile World Congress 2011 in Barcelona
The GSMA today reported that more than 60,000* visitors from 200 countries attended the 2011 GSMA Mobile World Congress, marking a record for the mobile industry’s premier event. The four-day conference and exhibition attracted executives from the world’s largest and most influential mobile operators, software companies, equipment providers, Internet companies and media and entertainment organisations, as well as government delegations. 51 per cent of this year’s Mobile World Congress attendees hold C-level positions, including more than 3,000 CEOs.
“The record attendance to this year’s Mobile World Congress is indicative of the impact and importance of mobile in not only technology and telecommunications, but across nearly all facets of the private and public sectors,” stated John Hoffman, CEO, GSMA Ltd. “Mobile truly is leading a transformation in how the world communicates, how business is conducted and how people live their lives. We are very proud of the contribution that the GSMA and the Mobile World Congress have in furthering this transformation.”
The 2011 Congress hosted nearly 1,400 exhibiting companies and occupied more than 58,600 net square metres of exhibition and business meeting space. More than 2,900 international print, Web and broadcast media attended the event to analyse and report on the many significant industry announcements made at the Congress.
Mobile World Congress: Unparalleled Conference Program
During the event, CEOs from companies including America Movil, AT&T, China Mobile, Cisco Systems, Ericsson, Google, HTC, Intel, Microsoft, Nokia, NTT DoCoMo, Qualcomm, Research In Motion (RIM), SoftBank, Telefonica, Twitter, Vodafone, Wholesale Applications Community (WAC), WPP and Yahoo!, discussed and debated the trends and issues which are shaping the mobile industry today and into the future. In addition to the keynote programme, the Mobile World Congress conference covered a range of topics, such as applications, mobile advertising, mobile money, mobile health, embedded mobile, cloud computing, network capacity and next-generation network technologies, among many others.
Developers Descend on App Planet
There were more than 45,000 visits to App Planet, a focused event designed to bring together the many critical elements of the broad mobile application ecosystem together in one location. Companies including developerprogram.com, HP, IMGA, Microsoft, Mobile {Dev}Sync, Nokia, RIM, Samsung, WAC and Wireless Industry Partnership each held application developer conferences (ADCs), and App Planet also hosted Macworld Mobile, a developer event targeting Apple iOS developers. App Planet included the Mobile Cloud Forum, sponsored by Cisco, HP, Huawei and NEC, and the LTE Forum, sponsored by Huawei, NEC, Syniverse and ZTE. Overall, more than 12,000 developers attended Mobile World Congress this year.
Unprecedented Attendance by the World’s Government Delegations
The GSMA’s Ministerial Programme also boasted record attendance, with government delegations from 131 countries meeting in Barcelona, an increase of 50% over 2010. Sponsored this year by Saudi Telecom (Platinum Sponsor), Huawei and Qualcomm (Gold Sponsors), the GSMA’s Ministerial Programme is a unique invitation-only event gathering ministers, regulators and CEOs from across the mobile industry for a series of in-depth strategic, policy and regulatory discussions in high-level summits and bilateral meetings.
Mobile World Congress 2012
“The GSMA is committed to holding the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona through 2012,” continued Hoffman. “We thank the city of Barcelona, the Government of Catalonia, Fira de Barcelona and all our Barcelona partners for supporting and contributing to such an amazing event, and we look forward to returning to the city next year.”
Dates for the 2012 Mobile World Congress are 27 February – 1 March, 2012.
For more information on the 2011 Mobile World Congress, visit www.mobileworldcongress.com.
ClairMail Announces New Mobile Fraud Management Solution for Financial Institutions
ClairMail has announced a new mobile fraud management solution for Financial Institutions (FIs) and their customers to oversee and quickly respond to fraudulent transactions directly through the mobile channel. ClairMail’s Fraud Solution works with existing FI fraud systems and processes to help mitigate card, Direct Deposit Account (DDA), online banking and identity fraud by leveraging all the capabilities of the ubiquitous mobile device and the robust alerting and orchestration capabilities of the ClairMail platform.
ClairMail’s Fraud Solution is the first release of a family of business-level solutions that demonstrate how the mobile channel can power new mobile capabilities, products and packages across the entire enterprise while bolstering the value and return on investment the mobile channel brings to the institution. Mobile banking has largely been viewed as an extension of online banking, but by implementing a solution that is scalable across bank functions and products, like ClairMail’s Fraud Solution, FI’s can drive new fee-based services, reduce servicing and risk management costs, enhance customer loyalty and acquisition and increase mobile banking adoption.
“While more consumers are adopting mobile banking, the full value of the mobile channel has yet to be realized. Consumers and FIs will gain the most benefit when they can leverage the unique features of the mobile device,” said Pete Daffern, CEO of ClairMail. “Enabling consumers to monitor, respond and resolve fraudulent transactions on their mobile device not only deepens the relational trust between that customer and their bank, it reduces costs for everyone by reducing false positives and minimizing the cost and time of fraud resolution. ClairMail’s Fraud Solution demonstrates our continual commitment to leverage the unique attributes of the mobile channel to help financial institutions strategically grow their mobile initiative to meet customer demand and achieve profitability.”
Recent studies have shown that a huge percentage of fraud loss to both consumers and the bank happen in a relatively short time window following an intrusion. While ClairMail’s Fraud Solution compliments existing fraud systems, it takes fraud prevention further by enabling FIs to generate and deliver real-time, consumer-defined alerts that allow customers to monitor account spending and identify fraudulent transactions more quickly. In addition, ClairMail’s Fraud Solution extends existing fraud detection and mitigation processes by using timely two-way alerts and workflow orchestration to verify potentially fraudulent transactions, more quickly detect false positives and bring to resolution any potential fraud incident – all from the mobile device. ClairMail’s reporting capabilities also provide pertinent information as to which alerts are being responded to and which are not, furthering the customizability, relevance and cost-effectiveness for the FI.
ClairMail’s Fraud Solution leverages the alert and orchestration engines of its mobile platform:
- Lowers fraud risk and associated costs for both the bank and consumer through early detection of fraudulent activity using ClairMail’s alerting engine that delivers timely, actionable consumer or FI-driven alerts enabling consumers to instantly identify suspect transactions, respond, and resolve potential fraud incidents right from the mobile device. Alert escalation and workflow capabilities ensure that user commands on the mobile device and required communication with the institution’s back-end systems are coordinated as part of a single set of detection and resolutions processes.
- Reduces reputational risk and improves customer loyalty and acquisition by becoming a trusted partner with the consumer in the war against fraud and offering safer and more feature-rich card and bank services.
- Create product differentiation and new revenue opportunities by introducing new fee-based products, services and offers driven by consumer alert preferences.
“The mobile channel has become an essential tool for financial institutions to combat increasing fraud rates seen across the United States and Europe, providing the ability for customers to proactively detect and prevent fraud activity on their accounts,” said Julie McNelley, senior analyst at Aite Group’s Retail Banking practice. “ClairMail’s new mobile fraud solution demonstrates the growing importance for FIs to take a strategic approach to mobile banking – extending mobile capabilities across the organization to create new fee-based services and products, help increase profitability, mitigate fraud losses and enhance the trust and relationship between the FI and its customers.”
Source: ClairMail
NFC Mobile Payments Will Be Big Business for Google, Says Schmidt
Eric Schmidt, Google’s chief executive, thinks wireless transactions, enabled by the coming wave of Android smartphones outfitted with near-field communication (NFC) technology, could turn into a serious business for the company.
Speaking to a small group of reporters late Tuesday after his keynote presentation at the Mobile World Congress here, Schmidt said Google could work with advertisers to “extend offers to phones with NFC chips.” Advertisers, he said, were interested in combining an ad and an offer, presumably at the point of sale.
via NY Times.
300,000+ Android Phone Activations Per Day, Says Schmidt
According to Google CEO Eric Schmidt, more than 300,000 Android phones are activated every day, double the number of activations reported just six months ago.
Canalys reported that in Q4 2010 the Android O.S. was the world’s best-selling smartphone platform, dethroning Nokia’s Symbian from the 10-year top position. According to Gartner, Symbian is still slightly ahead on sales if some legacy non-Nokia Symbian smartphones are included in the Q4 2010 figures.
Android has a large community of developers writing application programs (“apps“) that extend the functionality of the devices. There are currently over 200,000 apps available for Android. Android Market is the online app store run by Google, though apps can also be downloaded from third-party sites. Developers write primarily in the Java language, controlling the device via Google-developed Java libraries.
References: GigaOm; Wikipedia
M-PESA Wins “Mobile Money for the Unbanked” Award
Safaricom’s M-PESA has won the Mobile Money for the Unbanked Award at this year’s Global Mobile Awards 2011 which is being held in Barcelona, Spain between February 14th and 17th.
The M-PESA service was launched in March 2007. As of the end of 2010, the service had over 13.5 million customers countrywide. More than 400 organizations acceppt Bill Payment via M-PESA. The service does not require users to have a bank account; an important aspect in Kenya, where millions of people do not have a bank account. With M-PESA, account holders can buy electronic funds at an M-PESA agent and send the electronic value to any other mobile phone user in the country, who can then redeem it for conventional cash at any M-PESA agent. The awards are part of the annual Mobile World Congress which brings together players in the global telecoms market and is organized by the GSMA (Global System for Mobile Communications Association).
The “Mobile Money for the Unbanked” award category recognizes innovative, sustainable, pioneering mobile money services around the world that bring low-cost financial services, through mobile, within the reach of low income groups. The award recognizes the mobile money service that has had the most significant impact on unbanked customers in developing markets over the last year.
The win extends a five times winning streak by Safaricom M-PESA at the GSMA conference in over a three year period, and is a fitting recognition of its leadership in Mobile Money services.
Safaricom CEO Bob Collymore exalted in the win and said it was a validation of ongoing work to expand the M-PESA service in line with meeting the needs of the Kenyan customer.
“I am delighted and congratulate the M-PESA team. This shows that we are leading the evolution of mobile money from simple transfer to a total mobile commerce solution,” he said.
The judges said in their citation: “The success story continues. This solution is enhanced further with the addition of new features and territories. It is winning ground in a way seldom seen in the mobile industry and is a true and sustained success story.”
This years entry, put together jointly with Vodafone, covered M-PESA in Kenya, Tanzania, South Africa, M-Paisa in Afghanistan, India and Fiji, and Vodafone Money Transfer in Qatar, bringing together the strengths and benefits of the service to the firm’s customers across the group.,
The GSMA, which organizes the awards, represents the interests of the worldwide mobile communications industry. Spanning 219 countries, the GSMA unites nearly 800 of the world’s mobile operators, as well as more than 200 companies in the broader mobile ecosystem, including handset makers, software companies, equipment providers, Internet companies, and media and entertainment organizations.
Since the launch of M-PESA in just over 3 years, M-PESA has bagged a total of 12 international awards in its contribution to offering financial inclusion to the un-banked in Kenya.
Source: Safaricom
BillingTree Mobile Applications Now Available to Pulaski Electric System Customers
Pulaski Electric System is using BillingTree’s suite of mobile applications for electronic bill notification and payments via SMS/Text capable mobile devices.
The solution developed for Pulaski combines Kaizen Communications’ ability to send SMS/Text bill notifications using Kaizen’s Kpay platform while the payment authorization and settlement is handled by BillingTree.
As part of the new BillingTree/Kaizen partnership, the solution offers a seamless method for billers to notify their customers of a balance due then enables account holders to authorize payment from multiple pre-registered payment forms, including ACH, credit and debit accounts.
”Initially, I expected the 20-30 age group to sign up for the mobile program, but we had customers in their 50s and 60s signing up as well. It has been very well received by our customers. We publicized it through the radio and of our walk-ins the day of the launch, 30% signed up,” stated Daryl Williamson Vice President of Customer Support at Pulaski Electric Systems. “At Pulaski, we provide every avenue possible for the customer to take care of business with 15% of customers accepting bill notifications via the web and 10% of them paying online. We anticipate similar results through the text program.”
Additional components of BillingTree’s new Mobile Solutions Suite include small screen optimized payment forms for web enabled Smart phones and tablets plus the ability to remotely fund pre-paid service accounts within BillingTree’s Pre-FundTM solution.
Pre-Fund, a BillingTree joint solution with Lightstorm Global offers billers a pre-paid alternative to extending short term credit for consumption based services such as utilities and elective healthcare. The mobile suite extends to web enabled mobile devices the ability for customers to set up and add funds into earmarked accounts in order to maintain necessary minimum available funds.
The Mobile Suite’s web form optimization enables BillingTree customers utilizing online payment portals to scale for smaller mobile sized screens. The ability to adequately view and populate payment account information on additional resolutions expands the functionality of current payment portals to web connected hand held and tablet devices.
“The rapid mainstream adoption of text messaging and demand for increased mobile commerce alternatives is shifting electronic bill presentment and payment from what previously was managed primarily on the desktop to the handheld device,” said Scott McCollum, BillingTree’s President. “Our Mobile Suite of solutions delivers what many of our customers have been calling for and will continue to expand as mobile device technology evolves.”
BillingTree supplies the leading fully integrated, multi-channel electronic payment platform to a growing list of Industries, including Utilities, such as power, cable, municipal, and phone, as well as Healthcare, Insurance and Subscription-billed services. Benefits of electronic payment solutions include an accelerated availability of consumer funds, reduced costs associated with manual-payment processing, improved cash management, and integrated processing by managing all payments, returns, and corrections through a single portal.
Visa Interested in Mobile Payment Company Square?
There was a very complimentary and “loving” Valentine’s day post about Jack Dorsey’s mobile payment company Square on Visa’s corporate blog. Why is Visa posting such a piece? According to Venturebeat, there are several possible reasons:
“First, Visa may be starting to understand that businesses are continuing to tailor to the mobile consumer. If you want to sell to the mobile consumer, you may have to be mobile. Second, the blog was written by Visa Corporate Relations and might be looking to strike a partnership. Though interestingly, Square is using a Visa card in its demo image see image above. Enabling purchases to be versatile and available anywhere could greatly increase Visa’s attractiveness to both businesses and consumers.Lastly, perhaps Visa is looking to get on Square’s radar for an acquisition.”
via VentureBeat.