Back in action... What's in store for Q4

Sorry to everyone for my silence. I have just returned from an amazing break, taking the belated Honeymoon in Spain & Italy. With only a few months left in 2010 our interest turns towards Asia as interest creeps up on some highly anticipated launches before we finish off the year at Mobile Asia Congress in HK. Now that I am back on board look for a series of interesting reads, I even intend to push the envelope on a few hot topics.

Stay tuned

Assumptions are the mother of all F@#$ ups.

In recent weeks there has been an over whelming amount of cases arising where large multi-national banks appear to be making assumptions on consumer preferences in the ever changing financial services market., which in today’s modern world of Social Network result in the rapid spread of consumer opinion.

ANZ to kill non-iPhone mobile banking:
www.zdnet.com.au/anz-to-kill-non-iphone-mobile-banking-339302548.htm
ANZ, the first bank to bring Mobile Banking to Australia and the bank that gave birth to Cambodia’s WING Money, decided with little consumer engagement to kill all mobile banking except iPhone Banking.

HSBC, BofA, ANZ struggle with Social Media
www.finextra.com/community/fullblog.aspx?id=4024
Brett King, author or Bank 2.0 and serial blogger experience multi-national banking hell as he attempted to pay Singaporean Dollars onto his Hong Kong Credit Card at a HSBC Premier branch in Singapore.

So hard to change Ez-Reload top-up value:
http://business.asiaone.com/Business/News/My+Money/Story/A1Story20100512-215828.html
Wu Min Xiu, a journalist in Singapore was re-issued his expirying Credit Card with EZ-Link, only to be faced with a month long process to have his card re-configured to the old cards re-charge preferences for his EZ-Link facility.

Mobile financial services growing quickly but banks missing opportunities
www.mobilecommercedaily.com/mobile-financial-services-growing-quickly-but-banks-missing-opportunities/
As Telco’s and Third Party Service providers rapidly push into the Mobile Banking/Payments space, they quick eat up market share, particularly where they appeal to the younger generations that feel their needs aren’t being met by banks.

From my opinion these are material examples of a trend that I have noticed in the banking market where banks assume to know their consumers behaviour and preferences. But in reality it appears the decision makers are far from customer facing.

With the development of payments and agency banking regulations across the globe, third parties including Telco’s have seized the opportunities to offer consumer payments services such a Mobile Money & Payments offerings. Recent statistics show that MTN MobileMoney is on track to becoming one of Africa’s largest Financial Services providers, Octopus Cash Cards continue to penetrate the cash markets of Hong Kong, taking deposits away from the retail banks, more and more payments services are offered by non-banks. Will this trend continue? A world banks are so disconnected from the realities of their a fast moving tech savvy markets that third party service providers change the framework retail banking and payments to faster more innovative offerings that can adapt at high velocity and fulfill seasonal, fad and niche consumer choices in the market, then move onto the next evolutionary change with ease and speed. Will the bank take a back step to manage the risk and regulatory asides to deposits, while payments services are offered in the market as iPhone apps, NFC services and Cash Cards.

My thought, in 5 years times your deposits/accounts will sit with a bank for regulatory protection, but you’ll transact and do payments via third party technology based services.

The Mobile Wallet for developed economies, learning from the developing world.

Over the past 10 years Mobile Money initiatives have popped up all over the globe. But there has been one distinct trend: Developing economies implement mobile wallets, while developed economies implement additive mobile banking, but why?

In developing economies such as the Philippines, Kenya, Cambodia, Uganda and Pakistan the mobile wallet has been seen as a way to offer bank accounts to previously unserviced market. The wallet is used in a similar manner to the Cash/Current account used in developed economies, a way to store your everyday transactional cash. Only in the developed markets, we have adopted Cards as the means for utilizing our money.

There have been a number of studies by the various banks that suggest that a card transaction costs the bank roughly 4 to 5 US cents per transaction, while a mobile transaction can be as low as 2 cents due to the reduce infrastructure required for a mobile transaction.

Having said that, there are also a number of cash replacement offerings in the market such as Oyster, Octopus, EZ-Link and NETS Flash Pay which implement pre-paid stored value card predominately for public transportation. But these pre paid cards aren’t really linked to the rest of the financial system. You can’t pay to them without a reader, you can push a payment from the value on the card and you lose the stored value if you lose the card. So why is it a WING Money or MTN Mobile Money customer gets greater utility from their cash account than consumers in developed economies? Why doesn’t a bank or payments company realize the opportunity to enhance the utility of a cash replacement offering?

Hence my suggestion that developed markets should learn from the experience of developing nations in building cash like offerings that plug into the rest of the financial eco-system, something like a mobile wallet that is used through a mobile device. An account that behaves like an MTN Mobile Money wallet than can be used to pay for public transport, food, exchange money between individuals, pay merchants and buy services, but remain stored in the formal financial eco-system so that the utility of the value store is greatly enhanced.

This I feel is the future of mobile banking in developed markets.

Launching ACMFI

This week I made my first trip to Lagos in Nigeria for the launch of the African Center for Mobile Financial Inclusion. Along with my fellow directors from the UK, India, Canada and Nigeria, we converged on AITEC’s Banking and Mobile Money Conference at the newly renovated Eko Hotel for two days from frantic enthusiasm.

Faced with a panel of local suppliers, bankers, technologists and regulators, we set about creating the vision of ACMFI. Collaboration and Convergence to drive the adoption of mobile technology as a means for financial inclusion in Africa.

Africa is no stranger to mobile financial services, as the birth place of services such as M-Pesa, MTN Mobile Money, CelPay and Zap. Today with dozens of countries with low financial services accessibility and high mobile penetration, the African continent as proven time and time again that it is positioned perfectly for the sustainable adoption of Mobile Financial Services. But why have nations like Nigeria lagged behind their neighbours? A country with nearly 170 million people roughly 40% mobile penetration and very low bank account numbers. To date Nigeria has followed the cautious road using regulation to hold back providers before the Central Bank has time to get comfortable with this new way of performing financial transactions.

Hence we are left in a position that I have heard Hannes van Rensburg call ‘The Perfect Storm’. A market ripe and ready, just awaiting ‘approval’.

Thus creating the ideal setting for the launch of ACMFI, a body ideally positioned to share global experiences with the people of Africa and Nigeria to ensure a collaborative approach to launching services.

So what is ACMFI? ACMFI is the creation of center that will undertake research, policy and regulatory reforms, data sharing point, accelerate adoption and use of mobile technology as a means for financial services in Africa.

The vision was launched by ACMFI Secretary General, Emmanuel Okoegwale to a packed audience and what followed was more than we could have ever wished for. Dozens of various players in the market wanted to know more and wanted to know how they can get involved.

For the remainder of the event, AMCFI Chairman Prof. Prof.S.Subramanian, Director of Corporate Affairs Santanu Sengputa and myself met with each potential supporter to take them through the details of the vision and how it will work. By the end of the second day we had meet with approx 70 potential members ranging from regulators, technology suppliers, bankers, and service providers. Each with their own perspective and interest on the area of Mobile Financial Services. It was amazing to watch them come to life as they spoke of their area of passion.

We leave Lagos having met our two goals, firstly to formally launch the center and second to gain a list of potential member organizations. Africa and more specifically West Africa now has a center whose primary purpose is to drive collaboration and I am personally delighted to take up my role as the Director of Strategy and Partnerships.

www.acmfi.org

The foursquare Experiment, are social financial services possible?

In early April a little known new application caught my eye, foursquare. What caught my eye wasn’t the jazzy interface, or the badges. Instead I was curious as to why Yahoo were willing to pay US 100 dollars to acquire the business. So I have been experimenting with the user experience in search of the business' value and how such an application could be a integrated part of a financial services.

Stay tuned in for the complete notes in early May, and feel free to contact me with any specific questions or comments on foursquare.

Good News Story: Financial Inclusion from a different perspective

Recently I traveled to Karachi to see firsthand the success of easypaisa and MCB Mobile and was delighted with a customer story.

I was told the story of a Pakistani gentleman that was activated on MCB Mobile at the start of year. As per usual, he was activated by the call canter. The customer was pitched the MCB Mobile product and he liked the idea and agreed to register. Little did the sales team know at this point he is blind.

On a general customer service call he asked for some basic questions. The service team assisted him queries in the standard fashion. However, a few minutes into the call he said that he would need some further help as he was visually impaired. The service representative took the customer took it aboard to ensure a happy customer and guided him through the entire service. The service call lasted for approx 45 minutes.

The customer now uses MCB Mobile service through accessibility voice command software on his mobile which verbalizes the menu and all details helping him use a mobile phone. MCB’s first concern was the privacy of the customer’s PIN numbers. But further investigation found that his accessibility software is intelligent enough to verbalize the PIN as asterisks and not as the numbers thereby ensuring that the PIN is not heard by anyone in close proximity to the customer.

The customer is using the service regularly and has conducted roughly 50 transactions to date.

Its story like this that bring a smile to my face, as great customer service mixed with an innovative approach to technology creates a delightful customer experience for everyone.

Keep up the great work Pakistan :)

Success in Mobile Money, common factors.

As a consultant and through my work at Fundamo over the past few years, I have had the privilege to visit and study dozens of Mobile Money/Payments business around the world and one of the questions I always get asked is “What makes a successful Mobile Money/Payments business?” Which is a very broad question, but luckily I now have a fairly refined answer.
From my observations of the market there are two VERY key success factors that have driven success in multiple countries:

1. Understand your Market:

Far too many business get into the Mobile Money/Payments space thinking it’s purely a technology play. Banks are currently the worst at doing this. When it comes to understanding a market, one doesn’t have to look into a crystal ball. There are some simple tools that marketers have used for years. Take for example the six P’s of marketing. Which a slightly different spin, the six P’s can help a business gain a deep understand of a markets behaviors, priorities and demand gaps.
The Six P’s of Marketing.
People:

• Understand the demographics of the People.
• Research & Identify Market Traits. Identify the Community Units & Segments
• Sample Test Penetration Activities
• Find engaged local partners and seek to understand: People

Product:

• Use the market identification & entry models
• Maintain the Product, tailor the Distribution & Positioning

Price:

• Find the ‘sweet’ stop for price
• Price has to be competitive against alternatives, including cash based services

Place (distribution)

• The best entry points are the community’s source of funds.
• The largest source of funds is labor markets. Also, the employer of the largest p2p opportunity
• Follow Natural Cash Flows and re-apply. Everyone has the potential to use p2p. Majority already do. You just need to understand where the money already flows. Understand the movement of money within a community and its affiliated communities.
• Salary Payments ‘win-win’ for employer and employee. But how do you get salary money to remain in the system?

Promotion

• Education, Trust & Awareness are key
• Visit & Listen to the communities
• A foreigner learning local language builds a bridge of trust and creditability
• Incentivize entire value chain & reward loyalty

Positioning

• Look for pain-points in current cash services
• Appeal to the dreams and aspirations of the market, but maintain a perception of attainability
• Work with the community on pilots and proposition testing

2. Task Force:
One of the most energizing attributes of successful businesses in this space is an incentivized sales team. A team that engages the communities acquires and trains new customers, acts as a face-to-face customer service, works with the community to encourage long-term adoption, but most of all this team are rewarded for success.

• Wizzit’s Wizz Kids wear their shirts with pride as they spend time in the field signing up new customers and training them to use the service.
• WING’s Pilots spend large amounts of time signing up friends, families and fellow students in Cambodia.
• MTN Uganda’s Road Warriors travel across the country under the watchful eye of Dr. Love in pursuit of their daily targets.
• John Owen’s team at MABS are on a continual mission to drive financial services to rural communities on G-Cash in the Philippines.

In summary, the old idea of “built it and they will come” just won’t work. You need to understand and engage the people, refine your offering as you learn and have a dedicated team that drives customer acquisitions and adoption. Otherwise you’ll be left wondering why no one is signing up, or using the services.