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.
South African Mobile Payment Gateway Will Bypass Visa and Mastercard Systems
A local technology company called Lidonga Technology says it will launch a mobile payment gateway, a first for South Africa. The system will circumvent the use of foreign-owned Visa and Mastercard payment systems, saving the country billions of rands that would normally go to these foreign switching companies.
Chief Technology Officer at Lidonga Technology Roan Murray said Visa and Mastercard were making billions from South Africans who used debit and credit cards to shop as the country does not have an alternative payment system. Murray said Lidonga had designed a system called mokotla (a Sotho name that can be translated to mean a carrying case or wallet in this situation) to change this.
via Moneyweb.