Western Union plans money transfer by mobile phone
Thursday, 25 October 2007
Paul Taylor
MOBILE phones are about to become the simplest and quickest way to transfer money across borders, under a deal announced recently by Western Union and GSM Association, the main mobile phone operators' body.
The agreement could have a big impact on global cross-border remittances, worth an estimated $500bn a year, and provide a springboard for mobile carriers and Western Union to offer other mobile banking services using "mobile wallet" technology.
Cross-border money transfers valued at up to $100 in countries such as India, the Philippines, Mexico and China -- which have large volumes of remittances from migrant workers -- will be an early priority of the deal.
The first commercial services based on the commercial and technical framework developed by GSM Association and Western Union are expected to be rolled out at the beginning of the second quarter of 2008.
Mobile operators will be able to offer customers the ability to send and receive low-denomination, high-frequency money transfers via a conventional and regulated system using their handsets.
Thirty-five mobile operators with 800m customers in more than 100 countries have signed up to take part in the GSMA Mobile Money Transfer pilot scheme led by Sunil Mittal, managing director of Bharti Airtel. Other participants include MTN, Orange, Orascom, Smart, Telenor and VimpelCom.
"Mobile networks now cover more than 80 per cent of the world's population and 3bn people have a mobile phone, creating an unprecedented opportunity to extend the benefits of financial services to the majority of the world's families for the first time," said Rob Conway, chief executive of the association. "Mobile money transfers are a key driver in the development of a potentially vast market for financial services delivered via the mobile phone."
Western Union, which provides money-transfer services through a network of more than 312,000 agent locations in more than 200 countries, sees the mobile wallet scheme as a way to offer banking services to the large number of people who do not have a bank account.
"For us mobile is a tremendous opportunity, particularly in developing countries," said Christina Gold, chief executive. "Our focus on the mobile money transfer space is an important step in expanding the range of Western Union's global services to a new category of consumers."
Under the scheme, mobile operators will connect to Western Union's existing global money transfer system, which processed some 17 per cent of the world's remittance volume in 2006.
Once connected to the Western Union service, mobile operators will be able to use their own "mobile wallet" software to enable person-to-person mobile money transfers over Western Union's cross-border remittance network.
Under syndication arrangement
with FE
MOBILE phones are about to become the simplest and quickest way to transfer money across borders, under a deal announced recently by Western Union and GSM Association, the main mobile phone operators' body.
The agreement could have a big impact on global cross-border remittances, worth an estimated $500bn a year, and provide a springboard for mobile carriers and Western Union to offer other mobile banking services using "mobile wallet" technology.
Cross-border money transfers valued at up to $100 in countries such as India, the Philippines, Mexico and China -- which have large volumes of remittances from migrant workers -- will be an early priority of the deal.
The first commercial services based on the commercial and technical framework developed by GSM Association and Western Union are expected to be rolled out at the beginning of the second quarter of 2008.
Mobile operators will be able to offer customers the ability to send and receive low-denomination, high-frequency money transfers via a conventional and regulated system using their handsets.
Thirty-five mobile operators with 800m customers in more than 100 countries have signed up to take part in the GSMA Mobile Money Transfer pilot scheme led by Sunil Mittal, managing director of Bharti Airtel. Other participants include MTN, Orange, Orascom, Smart, Telenor and VimpelCom.
"Mobile networks now cover more than 80 per cent of the world's population and 3bn people have a mobile phone, creating an unprecedented opportunity to extend the benefits of financial services to the majority of the world's families for the first time," said Rob Conway, chief executive of the association. "Mobile money transfers are a key driver in the development of a potentially vast market for financial services delivered via the mobile phone."
Western Union, which provides money-transfer services through a network of more than 312,000 agent locations in more than 200 countries, sees the mobile wallet scheme as a way to offer banking services to the large number of people who do not have a bank account.
"For us mobile is a tremendous opportunity, particularly in developing countries," said Christina Gold, chief executive. "Our focus on the mobile money transfer space is an important step in expanding the range of Western Union's global services to a new category of consumers."
Under the scheme, mobile operators will connect to Western Union's existing global money transfer system, which processed some 17 per cent of the world's remittance volume in 2006.
Once connected to the Western Union service, mobile operators will be able to use their own "mobile wallet" software to enable person-to-person mobile money transfers over Western Union's cross-border remittance network.
Under syndication arrangement
with FE