Mobile Finance

Subscribers of Brazilian operator Vivo will soon have access to a mobile payment solution that allows prepaid customers to top up their credit directly on their cellphone using PayPal...

An independent mobile financial services company in Pakistan is launching a new mobile money network across the country...

The largest telecom provider in Gabon has entered into a new partnership to provide mobile money services...

The final session of MWC 2013 saw an executive level panel from the world's leading mobile money operators and vendors. MMU has been a great success over the past few years as it combines financial transactional services with existing basic mobile services to create financial inclusion to the unbanked...

The Russian operator VimpelCom has announced a strategic partnership with the credit card company Mastercard...

A major operator in Guinea has announced that it will introduce mobile data plans as well as mobile payments in the first quarter of 2013...

Kenyan mobile operator Safaricom has announced that the cost of transferring money through its M-PESA service will go up following changes in government taxes...

By 2015 the volume of mobile money transactions will reach $1 trillion. Global companies must tackle five key challenges to make the most of this opportunity or wonder who moved their money...

Mali is the latest country to benefit from international remittance services via mobile...

Nigeria is unlikely to follow the Kenyan blueprint for mobile money licensing regulation...

A new partnership is aiming to foster women’s entrepreneurship in the African mobile financial services industry...

A new joint venture between one of the world’s largest operating groups and a major payments specialist will develop mobile payment solutions for Brazil...

As part of Kenya’s highly successful mobile money scheme, users of Safaricom’s M-Pesa service now have access to interest-bearing saving accounts as well as the ability to take out small loans...

A new agreement will allow subscribers across Airtel’s entire African operation to send and receive money transfers over its network...

Indian mobile users will soon have access to the country’s first ever mobile signature solution for legally binding digital transactions...

One of Russia’s largest operators has announced its plans to acquire a stake of over 25% in one of the country’s leading banks...

Mobile money transfers to Africa are to be facilitated by new remittance corridors into the region...

China Mobile has detailed its NFC rollout plans, with the launch scheduled for 2013 following an ongoing trial of the technology...

South Africa’s First National Bank is planning to introduce a mobile payment device that will complement its merchant services...

An even greater number of mobile users in Latin America can now have their phones topped up by friends and relatives in Europe following the extension of a wide-reaching top-up service by one of the largest operators in the region. Telefonica will offer the service in partnership with recharge specialist ezetop, via the latter’s distribution network of over 117,000 shops.

Near Field Communication (NFC), the promising mobile (m)-payment technology, has not created the revenue-generating opportunities the telecom industry expected...

A new online money transfer service is launching in Madagascar, allowing customers to receive international remittances directly to their accounts...

Regulation and compliance requirements are still evolving in many markets when it comes to mobile commerce.

This is not a new channel for operators alone: Many banks also lack experience with mobile payments, remittance and other transactions. Various government bodies that regulate both mobile operators and financial services are also learning their way around mobile. Many regulators simply rely on existing rules for older types of transactions, such as card or cash payments. Regulation of mobile commerce as an industry is still a way off...

Burkina Faso’s largest mobile operator has launched its own mobile money platform in partnership with Ecobank...

One of the leading platforms in the mobile financial services sector is to be offered as a hosted model, extending benefits to members of the ecosystem...

One of Pakistan’s major banks is now offering mobile financial services...

A major mobile banking service has increased its footprint further across Africa and the Middle East, with Mauritius and Jordan now able to access the service...

A major new financial collaboration is set to provide Chad with its first mobile commerce services...

Latin America’s adoption of mobile commerce solutions evolved throughout 2011. Many financial institutions revisited their deployment of mobile banking, and mobile network operators formed mobile payments alliances - most notably America Movil, which formed a joint venture with Citibank, and Telefónica, which partnered with MasterCard...

Enhanced financial services will soon be made available to around 5.3 million people in Sub-Saharan Africa, following the announcement of a new partnership between The MasterCard Foundation and IFC, a member of the World Bank Group...

The Czech Republic and Slovakia are key growth markets within Central Europe; exports are the driving force behind both countries’ economies and foreign trade turnover is steadily growing in both markets...

A new money transfer service launching in Uganda will allow subscribers of one of the country’s leading operators to send and receive money across borders using just their mobile phones...

Reports from news outlets in Uganda are claiming that the African mobile giant MTN has lost billions of Ugandan shillings through fraudulent use of its mobile money service...