Cellphone banking will be next step forward
Research company Arthur D Little ranks Austria, Korea, Singapore and Japan as the most advanced in mobile payment services.
In Austria it is possible to pay for almost any kind of consumer product with a mobile phone, and the rest of Europe is moving in this direction, the company says in a recent report.
The mobile operators and banks that are getting involved in this area and forming joint ventures have varying ideas as to the scope of the applications they offer, says Craig Saks, chief operating officer at Fundamo, a local mobile payment software developer.
Saks says a group of banks and operators in South Korea has launched a common mobile-based payment solution that includes web content, transportation tickets, restaurant payments, event ticketing and person-to-person payments.
He says in Africa, Celpay, owned by FirstRand, is offering airtime, vending, COD, and bill payments by mobile phone in the Democratic Republic of Congo and Zambia, using the Fundamo mobilepayment software.
In SA the software is also being used to drive the MTN mobile-banking service, which is linked to a full-service banking card and is a joint venture with Standard Bank, says Saks.
Users initiate payments on their phone by selecting menu options, the money is sent from their bank account to the recipient’s bank account and a message is sent to both parties confirming that the transaction has been completed, he says.
As has happened with internet banking, over the next five to 10 years most banks worldwide will be offering mobile banking services, says Saks.
Most major and second-tier banks in SA are introducing or talking about implementing mobile payments, he says.
The potential for mobile banking and payments is huge because of the number of cellphones in use, which has now reached more than 2-billion. This is equivalent to one in three people having a cellphone — vastly more than the number that have internet access, says Saks.
"Few people will deny that mobile banking will become pervasive – it is just a question of what form it will take."
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