Paul Ruppert covers the Mobile Payments tipping point

July 08, 2007

Mobile Payments: The Tipping Point

A compendium of 56 Mobile Payments press releases over the last six months( a ton of reading if you click on the links ) reveals that notwithstanding the mobile payments debates and dialogue centered in the carrier centric mobile industry, the real action is already occurring with trials in the financial services and retail segments, plus through government central bankers around the world. These are the concrete emerging COIs (centers of influence) for this developing market. The operators are just going to go along for the ride....

June
12 - PaymentOne launches its "PhoneBill" service combining broadband and landline billing capabilities with mobile payments, providing online merchants a one-stop shop for alternative "no credit card required" payments.
21 Verizon, the number two US wireless carrier, is to offer consumers the opportunity to make purchases and conduct person-to-person funds transfers via their mobile phones using technology from privately-held US based Obopay

26 - MSNBC covers offering of mobile banking by Bank of America, Citibank, Wachovia, Washington Mutual, Wells Fargo and ING.
27 - Wells Fargo and Visa to conduct public mobile payments trial with up to 500 customers in the fourth quarter of the year.
29 - Javelin Strategy study indicates that Mobile devices embedded with chips will replace plastic payment cards over the next five years and will be used to make payments by around 50 million customers
29 - Chicago Fed Reserve article by Katy Jacob comparing the much anticipated but ultimately stalled smart card revolution of the 1990s with the current expansion of mobile payment platforms, and asks how mobile payments fit into the larger financial payment system. You can download it Download chifedmobilepayments2007_2401.pdf .

May
4 - US Tier three operator Cellular South adds Obopay m-payments platform to handsets
22 - Telsecure launches securePay m-payments system in UK

April
2 - Visa USA president and CEO John Coghlan at CTIA calls for closer collaboration between the payment card and mobile industries
2 - SmartPay and China Unicom team for mobile payments in Shandong
3 - Citibank launched a mobile banking application, called Citi Mobile, that customers can download to their hand sets through an offering by mFoundry.
13 - PayPoint to roll out mobile coupon scheme
16 - The Mobey Forum signs up Dutch banks ING and Rabobank and mobile operators Telenor, TeliaSonera and SK Telecom as new members
17 - MonVia, a specialty firm that helps accelerate the growth of early stage start-ups, today announced the launch of MobiBucks, a mobile payment solution
18 - Gresham Computing, the real-time financial solutions specialist, today announced the enhancement of its Clareti Connect product suite to include mobile banking
20 - Fidelity Express is teaming with e-payments Cyphermint to launch a service that will enable its customers to pay bills using their mobile handsets
24 - Morse is to spin off its mobile banking arm Monitise and list the business on the AIM exchange in London
24 - Altair Financial Services International has launched a totally revolutionary addition to Altair's Prepaid Card services that makes use of SMS on mobile phones
27 - MFoundry announced a formal agreement with wireless leader Sprint that will bring mobile banking to subscribers
30 - Analyst report : Opportunities and challenges for m-banking and m-payments by Katy Jacob and Caroline Boyd of the Centre for Financial Services Innovation
30 - Japanese telco KDDI and Mitsubishi-Tokyo-UFJ Bank have joined forces to launch a mobile Internet banking business later this year

March
9 - Marcus Theaters and Mobile Candy Dish today announced the pilot launch of a new service that allows consumers to use their mobile phones to buy movie tickets and more.
15 - US e-payments firm First Data is teaming with Germany's NCS to offer mobile payment processing services to its merchant and banking customers worldwide.
12 - FSTC and Clearing House Payments Company launch m-payments initiative
16 - Masabi, the secure mobile applications company, today revealed a working prototype of a graphically rich, secure mobile banking application.
16 - Vodafone is teaming with German rail operator Deutsche Bahn to develop and implement a mobile phone-based electronic ticketing and payment service called Touch&Travel.
20 - Belgian payments network Banksys and network operators Base, Mobistar and Proximus launched a system for consumers to pay for high street purchases via mobile phone.
23 - US mobile telco Cellular South is teaming with phone manufacturer Kyocera Wireless to launch a multi-city consumer trial of NFC-enabled wireless wallet technology.
27 - Monitise, the mobile banking subsidiary of UK IT services group Morse, is teaming with American fintech vendor Metavante to launch and operate a wireless payments and banking network in the US.
28 - Obopay announced the introduction of Obopay Checkout.
29 - Firethorn Holdings confirmed today that Verizon Wireless is working with Firethorn to introduce its mobile banking and payments solution.
29 - Visa USA president and CEO John Coghlan calls for closer collaboration between the payment card and mobile industries in order to realise the full potential for convergence between the two.

February
8 - MasterCard has partnered with Taipei Fubon Bank and Taiwan Mobile to launch an NFC mobile phone payment pilot programme across the island.
8 - Royal Bank of Scotland to offer mobile banking via MoniLink.
12 - MasterCard is to work with GSM wireless network operators to pilot an international remittance system using mobile payments technology.
12 - An agreement with Telus will bring ClairMail's mobile banking systems to a large customer base in Canada.
12 - Vodafone and Citigroup announce worldwide mobile financial remittance venture.
13 - Bank of America is to roll out a comprehensive mobile banking service to its 21 million online banking customers nationwide.
13 - China Unicom and SmartPay launch 'mobile wallet' in Guangdong.
15 - Morgan Stanley credit card unit Discover Network is working with Motorola to trial a combined mobile account management and payment service
20 - Cyphermint announced that it has released the PayCash Mobile Wallet.
20 - "Mobile Phone: The New Way to Pay" an industry briefing paper on the mobile phone payment market from Krista Becker, Emerging Payments Analyst from the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston is released.

January
2 - Online Resources announced the launch of its mobile banking and bill payment service
2 - US bank Wachovia is offering online banking customers a patent-pending mobile account information and intra-account funds transfer service
8 - Visa chooses Ecrio to launch its mobile payments platform
10 - Hybyte has launched AirPayment billing solution that supports PayForIt
23 - Norway-based LUUP has signed National Bank of Abu Dhabi (NBAD) to its mobile payments system
24 - Obopay, the first comprehensive mobile payment service in the U.S., today announced that it is entering the Indian market
27 - Japanese telco NTT DoCoMo "iteams" with McDonald's to enable payment for purchases via customer mobile phones.
28 - Citibank and Obopay launch a pilot person-to-person mobile payment service for its credit and debit card customers.