M-payment: mpass Becomes an Electronic money Institution
- The three German telecom operators (Telefonica Germany, Telekom Deutschland and Vodafone) have just announced their mobile payment service mpass (launched two years ago) should be granted e-currency institution status. Each of the three players would have a share in this new born company.
- Once this new status obtained, the three operators intend to make their payment service evolve through the adjunction of NFC technology and add to the existing SMS payment solution.
- Several players, including non-banking ones, have come to grips with the growth potential of the mobile payments market on an international level. For some years now, we have witnessed the development of three distinct business models: operators’, banking, and the “collegial” union of these two.
- The operators’ model prevails in emerging countries due to the number of underbanked people (up to 95% in Africa); it also tends to impose itself in industrialised countries. For instance, we shall mention the French Buyster launched this year by Atos, Bouygues Telecom, Orange and SFR, or “Ping Ping” started by Belgacom Tunz and Touchatag (Alcatel-Lucent) in Belgium.