Best practice for mobile payments
Mobey Forum, with participation from SWIFT, issues white paper for banks to deploy mobile payment services
The mobile phone is being increasingly used for person-to-person payments. Many of these services are available in Asia and Africa, with several more projects in Europe and the Americas.
These payment services are being provided in various ways, however, and we see more and more divergent ecosystems emerge. This may lead to closed loop systems and market fragmentation. To provide consumers with a compelling experience, these new mobile ecosystems must be interoperable with existing payments systems.
Mobey Forum - a global non-profit organisation whose mission is to facilitate banks to offer mobile financial services - issued a white paper on "Mobile Remote Payments - General Guidelines for Ecosystems". SWIFT is a member of Mobey Forum and co-chair of its Remote Payments Task Force.
The paper provides best practice on how to build scalable and interoperable ecosystems for mobile remote payments. Particular focus is given to international remittances, considered as a promising growth area for the mobile market.
"The aim is to enable our members to provide mobile payment services, by combining their existing payment infrastructures with the convenience that mobile customers expect," says Liisa Kanniainen, Executive Director of the Mobey Forum.
Olivier Denis, Co-Chair of the Task Force and Market Manager at SWIFT, says, "A mobile payment is straightforward but relies on a complex ecosystem with multiple stakeholders: banks, payments processors and infrastructure providers, and mobile network operators... All their requirements were taken into account."
SWIFT's Workers' Remittances service supports any type of payment (account, cash, cards), including mobile payments. Banks using it as a platform to offer international person-to-person payments can benefit greatly from the ability to reach mobile phone users, in particular for notification and pay-out capabilities in developing countries.
"This report is of immediate benefit to banks that want to use SWIFT for mobile payments, as they can service and reach even more customers," says Wim Raymaekers, Head of Banking Market, SWIFT.
To download the white paper or for further information about the Mobey Forum, please visit http://www.mobeyforum.org/.
More information about SWIFT's Workers' Remittances service.
Please contact us or share your thoughts and opinions at olivier.denis@swift.com.