The paper identifies seven key areas, or ‘control points’, within the mobile wallet ecosystem that will influence the delivery of the technology to end users, and highlights the controlling roles that different stakeholder groups will play in the commercial operation of its supporting infrastructure.
Amir Tabakovic, Head of Market Development at PostFinance and Chair of the Mobey Forum Mobile Wallet Task Force, comments: “There is clearly much interest in the commercial potential of mobile wallets from organisations operating in the mobile financial services industry. There is also considerable competition for market position among key players striving to win the interest of consumers. If the mobile wallet is to develop to its full potential, it is important to understand how the mobile wallet landscape can be influenced and in particular how stakeholders can control one or more parts of the ecosystem.”
This is the second in a series of mobile wallet white papers from Mobey Forum, the global bank-led industry association driving a prosperous mobile financial services ecosystem, which aims to provide the industry with a new level of thinking on what is required of stakeholders to facilitate widespread adoption of the mobile wallet.
In addition to exploring how stakeholder groups can influence the ecosystem by managing these control points, the paper also demonstrates how each control point can be applied to the different implementation approaches taken by current providers, including Google, M-Pesa, Nokia Money and Isis, irrespective of the specific technologies and business models employed by each.
“We advocate an open systems approach to mobile wallet development,” adds Sirpa Nordlund, Executive Director of Mobey Forum. “By drawing all stakeholders together and collaborating on the development of an infrastructure that is fully interoperable and in line with known industry standards, we can create a commercially viable environment that enables any mobile wallet to host content from any provider which, ultimately, will accelerate mass market adoption.”
“There is currently much hype around the mobile wallet, but very little analysis and guidance in the market to support worldwide adoption,” continues Nordlund. “Mobey Forum aims to address this shortfall and provide clarification on implementation for financial institutions and other stakeholders. In this second instalment, Mobey Forum provides a commercially neutral model for assessing how well equipped stakeholders are to fulfil the roles they are competing for.”