A new generation of banking... Movenbank

Today we witnessed a quantum step forward for the banking industry, as author of Bank 2.0, Brett King, announced the launch of Movenbank. A radically different way for people to engage with their money. Long gone are the formalities of banking, allowing consumers the power to spend, save and access their money in completely new ways. Utilising the power of gameification, consumers will have transparent power in their hand, known as CRED.

The modern consumer already carries one of the most powerful service delivery devices in the history of man, the mobile phone. Which has amazing ability to create behavioural, geographical, demographic and timeliness information that contextualized the world around us. Just like the daily ritual 750 million Facebook users have, as they check their news feed to see what's going on with their friends, family and associates. Advertising is targeted with precision, suggested services, new friends, all are built leveraging the power of information.

Movenbank has is the bank redesigned for the modern day, in a world that consumers create, engage and utilise information in an increasingly more rapid and empowering ways. Many of the the modern day digital natives have embraced the power of Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc. changing the by gone perception that everyone wants to hide from the world. Instead the modern consumer is happy to agree to an exchange of value, where the consumer allows the world access to their information in exchange for an optimised, contextualized consumer experience. Thus empowering the consumer with the utility of money and their mobile.

Movenbank is based on "CRED," which is based not just on your traditional credit scores, but recognises your "influence" at the bank, through the inclusion of information from your transactional behaviour, social networks and network influence.

With the Alpha release on October 1st. This truly will alter the course of how we all live with our money.

Best of luck to Brett King and the team at Movenbank

Breathe… A Tribute to the Mobile Money Pioneers

This year is the ten year anniversary of mobile's entry in the world of financial services. The past ten years has seen the industry push through the phases of experimentation, isolated adoption and the fight for self sufficient viability. Conceived in the unbanked territories of Africa, mobile technologies first primary role was that of an enabler that stretch beyond the boundaries of traditional banks and financial institutions, to reach the underhand and unbanked. What happened would put two industries on a collision course of customer ownership, banking and telecommunications. Many would credit Safaricom's M-Pesa as the first, but prior to M-Pesa's success in Kenya, Celpay in Zambia, G-Cash in the Philippines and Wizzit in South Africa were making inroads. Blue sky dreams lead a hype driven outlook, banks begun to feel the pressure of disintermediation, as mobile operators on multiple continents launched their own flavour of financial services.

Since these early days the evolving industry has had to frantically fight for its survival amongst the absence of matured profitable businesses to justify the ongoing innovation and development costs. The industry attracted only those most passionate about the cause, as they endured complex projects and intense travel schedules in the face of constant criticism from the incumbent financial institutions and regulators.

Recent years have seen a handful of banks launch services, under innovative new business models, such as Wing by ANZ in Cambodia, bKash by Brac Bank in Bangladesh and Barclay's in India. With the banks onboard, regulators around the world began to see the value in agency and branchless banking models, which opened the door for dozens of new operations around the world. Then came 2011.

This year we witnessed major global organisations make large strategic moves, bringing globally recognisable brands and diluting previous doubts about mobile's viability, thus setting the stage for one of the most exciting years ahead. 2012 will see services go mainstream, bridging the gaps between traditional financial eco-systems and the closed loop eco-systems built over the past 10 years. As mobile penetration continues to rapidly grow in all corners of the globe, the markets ability to leverage the mobile network as a part of the financial ecosystem strengthens. Lessons learned from developing and developed markets will collide as individuals that have endured the hard slog to today begin to share knowledge with a broader more engaged audience and workforce.

Gone are the days of frantically trying to justify our existence. Those who don't listen now will be left behind. No doubt, that in years to come 2011 will be seen as a critical tipping point in the evolution of financial services. Those who made moves in 2011 will be the leaders of tomorrow, while those who haven't will be left wondering how they missed the boat.

Now is the time that I'd like to recognise the efforts of the industries pioneers, those that have helped drive the establishment of this evolution. While names are not necessary, I know that these individuals have worked diligently, passionately and exhaustively over the years. Many of which I have had the pleasure of working beside, or shared stories with over the years. I commend your efforts… and encourage you to take this moment to just breathe… reflect and soak up all that you have achieved. The road ahead will still be hard work, but you can rest assured, the industry now has mainstream validation and you are the individuals that carry all the wisdom into this exciting new world.

Congratulations on a job well done

Here comes the bride… but who is the bride, and why are they getting married?

Two key industry vertical in the Mobile Financial Services domain are Banks and Mobile Operators, to date they have been in a perceived turf war as they battle over who will prosper as mobile technology strives forward as a key enabler for banking and payments.

The battle was first outlined by the success of SafariCom in Kenya, who with little to no help from the banking sector, built a hugely successful payments services driving huge leaps forward in payments convenience, financial inclusion and of course fee revenue. This lead to the hype driven years where innovators and analysts talked up the market opportunity globally. Moments later, Globe Telecom in the Philippines saw accelerated growth with it's business G-Cash, followed by Smart. But this created an industry divide and challenge. Traditionally banks were the only ones to offer payments and banking services, but recent successes opened the door to the possibility that a non-bank organisations could offer financial services to a customer base far greater than the banks have ever experienced through their traditional bricks and mortar business'. Banking analysts and banks responded with an attempt to create a scare campaign based on consumer protection and fraud, but mobile operator lead initiatives thrived through market necessity. Thus creating and 'Us versus Them' debate throughout the industry. Materials in the press continually focused on the question, 'Who will win?' will it be the Banks,  or will it be the Mobile Operators? A debate with a poisonous thread in an industry that necessitated collaboration.

Throughout the debate we were faced with a choice on whose perspective was right. Were the banks justified in their concerns about security, risk and fraud. Or were the Mobile Operators justified in their risk relative market demand approach providing services to people historically excluded from formal financial services? Reminds me of the dating scene, where men and women have different perspective on conduct and interaction. Even though both had the long term goal of procreation, often self indulgent perspectives encouraged each side that their needs and thoughts are superior and the opposite sex is just wrong. Isn't that what the book Men are Mars and Women are from Venus is based on? Variations on perspective.

Hundreds of years of experience have shaped of legacy thinking and beliefs system of bankers(men) throughout the world. Dealing with people's money was a serious business, with serious risk's. Loosing even a single dollar of a customer is considered devastating both from a reputation and trust perspective. The complexities of modern financial products, have meant that banking has become more than deposits, as increasing numbers of consumers took on credit and investment products. Experience with cheque fraud, financial melt downs, defaults and increased operating costs gave birth to practises such as Basel, AML/CTF, Risk Assessments and Regulated Policy. The result is an industry that fears change, particularly change it doesn't understand. Hence they innovate at a slower pace, prioritise risk controls above customer experience and withdrew from perceived risky products. Banks in my opinion are the men. Historically has reenforced their superiority in society, gentlemanly norms regulated their behaviour, they owned the family assets, drove the family car and women went meant to be subservient. In the end game of procreation, their role as a father is known.

Mobile Operators on the other hands are young in comparison. The earliest commercial mobile phones date back to the late 1970's. Hence they are considerably more innovative, and attack markets at a faster pace. In merging markets, it's not unheard of for operators to have double digit year on year growth. They have endured the markets ability to accept small slips in service standards, adopting multiple iterations of innovations such as SMS, WAP, Smart Phones & 3G. The ever growing demand for communications with mobility have driven their success in their contribution to society. While the comparison is a long shot, the age of the mobile movement is very similar to that of the female movement as women moved out of a stereotyped role in society to contribute in ever increasing capacities throughout society. Many would argue that the individuals drove the feminist movement, but in my opinion global demands necessitated more significant contributions from females arose the world. As the role of a woman grew, so did the frequency in which they stepped on the toes of traditional roles for men(Banks). While they may have moved into corporate roles, equal opportunity and business leaders, their role in society's ultimate goal of procreation remained. But they still had to battle the perception that women couldn't be in serious roles, creating concepts such as the glass ceiling.

What's the comparative for procreation in the battle of Banks and Mobile Operators in the turf war over Mobile Financial Services? One would argue that the effective collaboration between these two industry verticals. In my opinion recent examples of joint ventures, merges and collaboration agreements are the 'marriage' of industry players Leading to the optimum procreational outcome of profitable, sustainable businesses, the children of collaboration. Only through the proliferation of the next generation with evolved perceptions on the norms that govern society, paving the way for more and more successful collaborations.

In summary, I believe the ultimate success and evolution of of mobile technology as a norm for banking and payments is highly dependant on the ability of banks(men) and mobile operators(women) to realise they both have the same objective of building success mobile financial services businesses(children). Only then with aligned horizons will they fuse their roles in the industry, giving birth to generations of industry success

Google & Motorola.... anything for Mobile Money?

In a bid to strengthen its mobile business, Google announced today that it would acquire Motorola Mobility Holdings, the cellphone business that was split from Motorola, for US$40 (S$48) a share in cash, or US$12.5 billion.(TodayONLINE). The offer - by far Google's largest ever for an acquisition - is 63 per cent above the closing price of Motorola Mobility shares on Friday. Motorola manufactures phones that run on Google's Android software.


But is this deal likely to effect the world of Mobile Financial Services? To gain an insight into the potential we need to look at the history of the two businesses.
Motorola has had a roller coaster history over several decades. Many of us would recall devices such as the StarTAC and the RAZR, under the Helo Moto messaging. But even with these pinacle devices, Motorola was never able to achieve the mass market scale of its competitors Nokia, LG and Sony Ericsson. The first Motorola device to use Google's open source OS, Android 2.0, was released on November 2009, the Motorola Droid. The handset division was then spun off into the independent Motorola Mobility.


Google on the other hand has been on an ever growing distribution base in the Mobile OS space since it's acquisition of Android in 2005. Then with the support of the Open Handset Alliance, Google launched it's first release of the acquired platform in 2007. Since that Android has seen a spike in distribution across some 80 device manufacturers. By the fourth quarter of 2010, Android become the world's best selling Mobile OS.


The challenge for Smart Phone OS providers, has always been the market share limitation globally. In 2011, roughly only 25% of global devices are smart phones. This is where the Google Motorola opportunity comes in.
With Motorola's device experience, Google should be able to create move to penetrate lower down the value chain of the handset market. Thus opening the door for richer distribution of services over the open source OS market. With mid and low end devices powered by Android in the hands of the 700 million mobile users in India, or the 180 million in Indonesia, the distribution of mobile service becomes easier and richer. A perspective very different to Nokia's recent announcement of factory preloaded applications.


A parallel initiative run by the Grameen Foundation, AppLab, who seek to engage with organisations, government entities and socially-minded companies interested in better understanding and meeting the needs of the poor. AppLab has had a long history of building services on the Android platform, particularly in markets such as Uganda, Indonesia. Overlaying Google's OS, Motorola's device experience and grass roots level programs such as AppLab's means a powerful network of organisations with simple tools that can overcome the commercial barriers that Mobile Operators put in place to restrict the success of services trying to access their customer base. Resulting in the easier, quicker and more cost effective creation, distribution and management of mobile services such as Mobile Money.


In summary, with the effective collaboration of open source OS(Google) and a device manufacturer(Motorola), we have for the first time, a complete non-Apple mobile eco-system for the creation of services for delivery over mobile

Recipes to Success #1: Building the EcoSystem

Over the years, I am continually asked what is the 'secret sauce', 'silver bullet' or 'killer app' to ensuring Mobile Money success. And I have to admit, there is no secret, there is only the ability to learn from the repeated mistakes and successes of those that have pioneered before you. Such an approach isn't specific to emerging markets, developed markets, Africa or Asia, but it is a strong set of learnings that one should investigate, understand and consider when making their own play in mobile financial services. One of the key successful factors is understanding and building the eco-system.

Far too many mobile money businesses go head first into launching products that have little market research and little consumer understanding on the chance that 'build it and they will come' or 'copy M-Pesa' will ensure success. Operations like these are continually faced with disappointing adoption rates, or low active utilisation. Thus leaving executives puzzled or disillusioned on around the hype of mobile for financial services.

Building the Eco-System is at the top of my list of insights as a theme that many forget. This may sound simple and straight forward, but one needs to be aware this is not something you can buy, outsource or ignore. It's a constant journey of discovery, adaptation and refinement. It doesn't finish upon launch, nor does it finish within the first year. Best of all, it a journey that will engage you in the fascinating exploration of cash and transaction flows within your market. It involves understanding the various actors within the community, how and why they interact, where they interact, what is the relationship between them. Only with this level of understanding will the market opportunity for Mobile Money be obvious. This could be as simple as witnessing the amount of cash that friends or family send between each other via trusted couriers, or huge queues at a factory on payday. This is your secret sauce, engaging and understanding the world people live in, then finding the points in the ecosystem that could be better.

I have such a recipe, which I have used dozens of times to guide the industry towards success. Engage, Penetrate, Accessibility, Control, Sustain & Learn, Re-Plan, and re-Execute. Let's take a look at each step:

1. Engage: 

First and foremost you must find a way to get amongst your target market. Spend time understanding their everyday needs, pressures, movements, etc. Find out how much cash they carry, and why that amount. Where they travel regularly to buy things, get services, or exchange money? Document everything you find, take photos, exchange contact details. These people will be key in your journey of market understanding and service refinement.

2. Penetrate: 

With a clearer understanding of the market, document your theories on where you feel a service can penetrate the ecosystem. Remembering commerce and financial transaction already happen, your just looking for gaps where you feel a service might enhance or benefit those involved. Start by listing just a dozen. This list is where you make a soft launch of the service. Get those people deeply engaged, because they will be your champions over time.

3. Accessibility: 

Okay, so now you have a few theories on getting into the ecosystem, but you have to remember, once you convert transactions from cash to virtual money, such in the cause of Mobile Money. Those individuals brave enough to be early adopters will need assurance that they can still get access to their money. There is no point trying to address the payday queues at a factory, if the only way they can get cash is to travel to a bank or ATM to make a withdrawal. The access needs to be within their current life & ecosystem, but of course you already know where their life happens from your engage findings.

4. Control: 

While hyper growth is fantastic, it also means you have to scale your service foot print to meet the demand, which creates a risk that you have poor customer experiences outside your existing field of service. Take Facebook for example, they executed a carefully controlled launch, one university at a time. During the initial phases of your launch you will learn ten fold from your original market engagement findings. The ecosystem in which you activate needs to be readily accessible so you can quickly collect market feedback. Make sure you document this feedback, as it will be extremely valuable as you refine the service offering.

5. Sustain & Learn: 

As the ecosystem organically grows, you need to maintain your engagement so that you may observe it grow patterns, behavioural usage, challenges, etc. Ongoing observation and documentation.

6. Re-Plan: 

Revisit the theories you had during the penetrate phase and add to the list, no doubt the number of theories you now have are double or even triple. You need to link your findings in the field in a cyclical manner enabling a highly engaged feedback mechanism into your market planning, service planning and penetration plans. These will be key as you enter more and more ecosystems. Don't be afraid you remove the theories that didn't work, just don't forget why didn't work.

7. Re-Execute: 

This is where the model completes the cycle. Go back and re-engage, whether that is engaging a new ecosystem, or reengaging the same but broader community. You'll enter with an enhance understanding, which will make you more observant and in tune with the community.

This all may seem fairly straight forward, but you'd be surprised how often companies looking to enter the Mobile Money space forget to engage the ecosystem and learn through a repeatable process. The process is scalable, so as your team size grows the process remains with a greater power as you gain more and more perspectives on the market.

So there you have it. A Jamie Oliver style recipe for success in launching Mobile Money. If you'd like ore details, I am always not to far away.

VISA & Fundamo... Game Changing

Fundamo CEO.
Hannes van Rensburg

Today, VISA Inc announced the acquisition of Fundamo (http://corporate.visa.com/media-center/press-releases/press1128.jsp). You would have read in recent posts that the industries largest players, continue to make large strategic moves in 2011. Today was very different, today VISA 100% acquired Fundamo. Yes, I know this blog is going to sound bias given I work for Fundamo. But I assure you, my person opinion prevails here.

Fundamo has worked hard to develop themselves as an industry leader in the Mobile Financial Services space under the guidance of industry heavy weight, Hannes van Rensburg. They've endured multiple iterations within the industry, as it moved from experimental first movers, to the mature enterprise platforms we see today. The GSMA recognises their customer Celpay in Zambia, as the oldest Mobile Money operation in the world, pre-dating M-Pesa, G-Cash and Wizzit. Fundamo's poster child has always been the deal with MTN Group, which saw Fundamo technology deployed in multiple countries. This was a partnership that fused the might of a Mobile Operator Group in multiple emerging markets, with the thought leadership of the team at Fundamo. Thus creating one of the world's leading multi-country Mobile Money businesses, something M-Pesa has been unable to achieve with Vodafone, and Orange still struggles with.

VISA on the other hand operates the largest payments network in the world with roughly 40% of the worlds Credit Card market and just of 60% of the debit card market. Recent years have seen VISA push deeper into emerging markets with PrePaid products, such as their deployment into Pakistan for the distribution of flood relief funds. VISA has also launched products such as VMT (VISA Money Transfer) which taps into the P2P markets. They also recently invested in CyberSource and PlaySpan, adding to their partnerships with Monitise & Device Fidelity.

The acquisition of Fundamo integrates a industry leading mobile financial services platform, with existing presence in countries across Africa and Asia, into Visa’s global network. Thus bringing to market the first open door for the previously closed loop payments ecosystems that have dominated Mobile Payments to date. Creating a new market potential, far greater than VISA has seen before, and creating a tipping point to drive consumer adoption of mobile as a payment instrument. This move is a true game changer. It means that VISA products can now be extended to the 4 billion plus mobile users world wide, including the highly aspirational emerging nations with greater the 100 Million population.

This announcement when coupled with VISA's complementary assets in the industry is sure to be a success. It essentially gives them all the tools they need to deliver on their May 11th announcement, VISA unveils next generation electronic payments (http://corporate.visa.com/media-center/press-releases/press1124.jsp) only with Fundamo, it now has the footprint to drive deep into emerging economies. 

Exciting times ahead

Google, MasterCard, Citi & First Data.... Fail to deliver on potential

It's out.... Google & MasterCard's Mobile Payments announcement has been formally announced and the industry is now in a hype as opinion pieces, scrutiny and scandals hit blogs & twitter.


But what surprises me most is that the announcement falls short of my expectations. As I mentioned in my post yesterday, Google could have leveraged the Open Handest Alliance and Open Standards of its Android platform to raise the industry to a level that would be hard to follow. We could have seen the possibility of open source developers building ePOS Apps for businesses, driving digital transactions into new market segments where traditional POS devices are too costly. 


Google could have created an offering that goes beyond the limitations of NFC, but have been happy with MasterCard PayPass' NFC network. Is this just a speed to market play from the Google & MasterCard? Or is this actually their strategy?


Let's hope that this is just a speed to market play, otherwise Google & MasterCard have under-estimated the potential of their current assets.