It has been a busy year for the GSMA Mobile Money programme, and we’re pleased to share some of our key programme activities and highlights from 2015. The depth and breadth of our work demonstrates our continued commitment to supporting our members and the broader industry to increase the utility and sustainability of mobile money services.
January
In January, we launched a new toolkit, the A2A Interoperability Commercial Models Toolkit, to help operators identify the transaction and revenue uplift from introducing interoperability for account-to-account (A2A) transactions between mobile money schemes in their market.
We also took a look at the evidence of how regulatory barriers are slowing down financial inclusion – the existence or absence of an enabling regulatory approach has a dramatic impact on the development of the mobile money market and on financial inclusion.
February
In February, we released a new case study on enabling mobile money policies in Kenya. In the span of just seven years, Kenya’s financial services landscape has been dramatically altered. Kenya has been a phenomenal success story for mobile money, with an estimated 59% of the adult population actively using mobile money services.
We also shared qualitative research by InterMedia which identifies specific pain points in the daily financial lives of consumers in Peru. Collectively, these findings can help existing and prospective providers inform their commercial strategies and develop strong value propositions for various segments of the population.
March
We released our 2014 State of the Industry Report on Mobile Financial Services for the Unbanked in March at Mobile World Congress. This report continues to be our most popular publication, and our 2015 edition is due to be published next February.
We also shared a case study which highlights early results from a promising new model for cross-border remittances. In this model, which is rapidly emerging across East and West Africa, mobile money is used as both the sending and the receiving channel.
April
In April we discussed the potential of the mobile money ecosystem, which brings two major benefits to providers: increased profitability and greater customer relevance. We also looked at the critical requirements for driving successful mobile money ecosystem initiatives.
May
We published a report and infographic on mobile financial services in Latin America and the Caribbean in May, which provides a snapshot of the current state of mobile financial services, analyses the commercial models being employed in different market segments, and discusses the regulatory evolution that has helped shape the industry.
June
Our new tool was launched in June – the Mobile Money Operational Assessment. This assessment offers a quick diagnostic of the foundations in a mobile money service (such as distribution, organisational structure and marketing), and is designed to identify barriers that might inhibit growth of a service, and provide recommendations and considerations for overcoming these.
We also kicked off a blog series looking at lessons learnt from mobile insurance, which included insights from MicroEnsure, BIMA and Inclusivity Solutions.
July
We explored the opportunities and challenges for mobile money in the Middle East and North Africa in July, looking at MENA’s financial access landscape, key segments and use cases, investment and regulation. Considering that mobile penetration is above 100% in most countries of the region, mobile money may represent a strong opportunity to increase financial inclusion in MENA.
August
In August, we released a publication on proportional risk-based AML/CFT regimes for mobile money which helps regulators understand the risks posed by mobile money services and the measures mobile money service providers are taking to mitigate these risks. It also helps assessors understand mobile money services and the risks and risk mitigation measures to inform the mutual evaluation process.
September
Successful Account-to-Account (A2A) interoperability should bring significant benefits for providers and customers alike, but poor implementation could jeopardise adoption and result in inefficient use of financial resources. To address this, we released a new publication in September which sets out operational guidelines for mobile money providers to consider when introducing an interoperable service for their customers.
We also published an interview with the Colombian Financial Regulation Agency, sharing insights from the new mobile money regulation in Colombia.
October
October was a busy month for GSMA Mobile Money. We announced our third phase of funding — $9.4 million USD from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, The MasterCard Foundation and Omidyar Network to support our work until October 2018. Our programme is supporting the industry to develop the mobile money ecosystem, to enable a broad range of digital transactions and make mobile wallets central to the lives of the financially excluded and underserved.
We held our Mobile Money Global Event in Cape Town, where more than 200 industry leaders and partners convened to discuss the opportunities for collaboration in developing the mobile money ecosystem.
We also launched two publications: a case study on paying school fees with mobile money in Côte d’Ivoire showcasing a public-private partnership to achieve greater efficiency; and research from Chad and Mali which highlights on critical factors to create successful mobile money agents in rural areas.
November
This November marked one year since we launched the Code of Conduct for Mobile Money Providers. Since then, four individual deployments have endorsed the Code of Conduct: Econet (Zimbabwe), G-Xchange (Globe Telecom Philippines), Safaricom (Kenya), and Telma (Madagascar). Today, 71% of the 75 million active accounts of MNO-led mobile money services (and over half of all 103 million active mobile money accounts) are covered by the initiative.
We also published our first co-authored report with GSMA Intelligence—Building digital societies in Asia: Making commerce smarter—which looks at the development of digital payments, in particular mobile money, and how it can enable digital commerce.
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If you have any questions or comments about our 2015 activities, or would like to read our latest blogs and publications, visit our website or get in touch ([email protected]). Our monthly newsletter remains a great way to stay updated in 2016 and you can sign up here.