Through Ericsson Money Services and its Money Interconnect Service, mobile operators, financial institutions and other service providers, wishing to extend their offering with mobile money services, can easily be connected to a real time, cross-border, cross-currency switching network.
The launch of this new business follows two years of preparation and proof of concept in Europe and Asia. As part of this establishment, Ericsson has developed an end to end solution and associated business and operational model, fulfilling all necessary regulatory, legal and security requirements, in cooperation with its operator customers and innovative players in the financial sector.
Mobile payments and person-to-person money transfers are forecasted to become some of the most used mobile applications in many countries in the next two or three years. Mobile money will become a foundation for person-to-machine and machine-to-machine connections by 2020, when Ericsson envisions a world with more than 50 billion connected devices. Ericsson claimed it has a significant role to play as these trends are realised.
Ericsson Money Services also offers end to end solutions that can be tailored for different market conditions and needs.
Semir Mahjoub, head of Ericsson Money Services, commented: “A new market is opening up consisting of consumers whose first meeting with banks will take place over a mobile phone and who may never own a plastic credit card. People who may never enter a bricks and mortar bank now have the opportunity to ‘walk’ into a virtual bank using their phone. They will also benefit from more reasonable fees for routine transactions such as transferring funds.”