GSMA Expands Reach of Mobile Money Transfer Programme
Forges Strategic Partnerships with Belgacom International Carrier Services and the Royal Bank of Scotland Group
BARCELONA, Spain, Feb. 17 /PRNewswire/ -- The GSMA today announced new
developments in its Mobile Money Transfer (MMT) programme, an initiative that
leverages mobile to facilitate access to money transfer services.
Complementing the successful alliance that has been in place with The Western
Union Company for the past eighteen months, the GSMA has selected Belgacom
International Carrier Services (Belgacom ICS) and its technology partner
eServGlobal as a new remittance provider in the MMT programme. To add further
flexibility for operators, the GSMA has also chosen the RBS Group, a global
bank, as a remittance partner and is working with them to finalise the
offering.
"Since the launch of the MMT programme in 2007, we've made significant
progress to catalyse the mobile money market," said Bill Gajda, Chief
Commercial Officer for the GSMA. "We've delivered live commercial deployments
of mobile remittances and established five active corridors with Western
Union, we've increased the number of markets served from three to 54, and
we've moved the market from one wholesale remittance provider in 2007 to 12
providers today. In addition, we've established price points that enable
mobile operators to offer affordable services to consumers, which will make
remittances much more accessible to a larger addressable market. The
partnerships we're announcing today will serve to further accelerate the
availability of money transfer and other financial services to a wider section
of the global community."
The GSMA and its MMT partners have established a commercial and technical
framework that enables mobile operators to deploy services that allow
consumers to send and receive low-denomination, high frequency money transfers
using their mobile phones. With the alliances with Western Union, Belgacom
ICS and the RBS Group, the MMT programme offers a variety of solutions to
mobile operators. The GSMA will continue to build partnerships that will
enable it to support the four remittance provider models that have been
identified through the programme: Global Processing Company, Wholesale Bank,
New Company and Wholesale Remittance Provider.
Each of the partners announced today offers a unique proposition in the
mobile money transfer value chain, further expanding the scope of the
programme and its services. For instance, in addition to being a mobile
remittance platform, Belgacom ICS' HomeSend solution, which was built in
partnership with eServ Global, is capable of providing international air time
transfer and top up. Beyond RBS' market-leading foreign exchange trade
system, the Group brings in-market regulatory compliance and banking
operations expertise to operators through a co-branded ('Powered by RBS')
joint offering in relevant markets.
The GSMA represents the interests of the worldwide mobile communications
industry. Spanning 219 countries, the GSMA unites more than 750 of the
world's mobile operators, as well as 200 companies in the broader mobile
ecosystem, including handset makers, software companies, equipment providers,
Internet companies, and media and entertainment organisations. The GSMA is
focused on innovating, incubating and creating new opportunities for its
membership, all with the end goal of driving the growth of the mobile
communications industry. For more information, please visit
http://www.gsmworld.com
