The Cutting Edge of Mobile Payment Isn’t Where You Think

From PYMNTS.com –

““If you want to live in a cashless society, where most consumers and merchants are using their mobile phones for payments and other financial services, pack your bags and head to Somaliland or a few other destinations that are as long on mobile payments as they are short on 3 star Michelin restaurants.”

– Dr. David Evans, Why Apple Pay Is Fizzling

If you ask the man on the street what they think of when they hear the phrase “mobile payments,” many would say Apple Pay, some might say Silicon Valley, while others might reference something about paying with their phone. It’s unlikely, however, that “Sub-Saharan Africa” would make most people’s Top 5 — or even their Top 3.”

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Nordic countries point way to cashless future as US struggles with chip-and-pin

From The Guardian –

“Sweden, Denmark, Finland rank top in the EU for card payments. Are there lessons here for America?

Nordic countries are leading a shift by rich nations towards cashless societies, providing a test case for whether the lower cost and convenience of using cards and smartphones for payments outweigh the risks of fraud and some people being left behind.”

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What Bitcoin Can Learn From Mobile Money's Journey

From Coin Desk -

“Many of the greatest challenges faced by bitcoin today – adoption, scale and regulation – mirror those of its predecessor: mobile money.

When launched in 2007, mobile money was just as foreign and raised as much alarm as bitcoin. Though it has since spread to 60 million active users, mobile money was not an overnight success. However, we now have seven years of data about its achievements and failures that we can learn from and use to shape the choices made by those in the bitcoin sphere.

Research on mobile money focuses on emerging markets, where use is concentrated and most people don’t have formal bank accounts. Digital finance has proliferated in these regions because it’s easier to roll out mobile networks than shore up information and communications technology (ICT) infrastructure.


Kenya has become the paragon of mobile money. Today, more than two-thirds of Kenyans use M-Pesa.

Why did this work and what are the lingering issues and opportunities for bitcoin?’

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Financial Regulators Should Listen to Bill Gates on Mobile Money

From American Banker

“People around the world are holding an instrument for economic empowerment in the palm of their hands-but some of those who could benefit most from mobile money are facing a lock screen.

Mobile payments have emerged as a key tool in the fight against global poverty. People in poor and rural areas of countries like Kenya and India are already using cell phones to send and receive funds and pay bills. Microsoft founder Bill Gates highlighted a broad range of possibilities at the Sibos banking conference in Boston early this month, describing how mobile payment applications can help people in developing countries receive vital aid, set aside money to buy fertilizer for next year's crops, save for tuition fees and build credit scores that give them to access to affordable loans.”

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Kenya is pretty much the only place where mobile money works. Now, it seems, the banks want to wreck it.

From The Register

“Vodafone-owned mobe operator Safaricom runs M-Pesa, the poster child for mobile payments. It has revolutionised the lives of people who were so poor that the banks were not interested in serving them.

However, having become the dominant force in the Kenyan economy, the banks quickly moved with the regulators to ensure that the success of a non-bank organisation offering banking services was not replicated anywhere else.

Of course, this was dressed up with plenty of stick along the lines of “funding terrorism”, “money laundering” and “know your customer”, alongside carrots of “co-operation” and “responsibility”. The truth is that nowhere has been as successful with mobile payments as Kenya has, thanks to bank-inspired regulation hampering progress throughout the rest of the world.

Caught off-guard, Tim Murdoch, the architect of M-Pesa, told me: “It worked because they didn’t see us coming”. In truth, Vodafone didn’t see the exceptional success of M-Pesa coming either.”


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Gates Foundation launches challenge to boost mobile money acceptance

From Finextra

“The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation is aiming to accelerate the adoption of digital payments in the developing world by offering grants to firms that make it easy for small merchants to accept mobile money.

More than 2.5 billion adults around the world, and 59% of those in developing economies, do not have a formal bank account, trapping them in a cash-based economy that "steals away their chance to build a stable future," according to the foundation.

While mobile phones have helped usher in an era of person-to-person digital transactions, the vast majority of payments within the small merchant community continue to be cash-based.”

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