GSMA MOBILE BANKING VENDOR ANALYSIS OVERVIEW DOCUMENT

GSMA MOBILE BANKING VENDOR
ANALYSIS OVERVIEW
DOCUMENT
This document provides an introduction and overview of the leading Mobile Banking/Commerce vendor solutions available
to MNO’s and Banks.
The document is intended for MNO’s in the GSM Association (“Association”) as an overview of the Mobile Banking
solution and Vendor Environment.
The vendors chosen in the analysis were selected through sourcing information from implementations around the world,
as well as web, and conference materials.
The data used was supplied through the vendor’s websites, vendor data submissions, face-to-face meetings, and
telephonic discussions.
The document is not an accreditation of the vendor or its solution and is to be used for informational purposes only.
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Access to and distribution of this document is restricted to the persons listed under the heading Security Classification
Category. This document is strictly confidential to the Association and is subject to intellectual property protection,
including copyright. This document is to be used only for the purposes for which it has been supplied and information
contained in it must not be disclosed or in any other way made available by the recipient, in whole or in part, to persons
other than those listed under Security Classification Category without the prior written approval of the Association. The
information contained in this document is provided “as is” and the Association makes no representation, warranty or
undertaking (express or implied) with respect to and does not accept any responsibility for, and hereby disclaims liability
for the accuracy or completeness or currency of the information contained in this document. Recipients who use this
document and rely on any information herein do so at their own risk. Recipients should therefore verify information
obtained from this document before they take any action upon it. The information contained in this document may be
subject to change without prior notice.
Copyright Notice
Copyright © 2007 GSM Association
GSM and the GSM logo are registered and owned by the GSM Association.
Antitrust Notice
The information contain herein is in full compliance with the GSM Association’s antitrust compliance policy.

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THE ROLE OF THE MOBILE BANKING VENDOR

The Mobile Banking environment requires both a Bank and a MNO to deliver a
transactional or informational banking service to a consumer through the mobile phone.
In this description, neither the bank, nor the MNO, can deliver the solution to the
consumer in isolation.
In some examples, the MNO has delivered a MNO branded bank/banking application to
the consumer, however the MNO has had to still partner with a bank for their financial
license or processing capability or acquire a banking license and source bank
processing capability.
In some cases, the Bank has delivered a Bank branded mobile banking application to
the consumer, however the bank has had to make use of, or partner with the MNO for its
infrastructure to provision the application and for ongoing financial transactions.
Often times the debate as to who owns the customer for a mobile financial service is
endless between the two parties.
The Mobile Banking Vendor plays the pivotal role of integrating the bank and the MNO
and technically delivering the application to the consumer.

BANK
Service
MOBILE
offering
MOBILE
BANKING
BANKING
VENDOR
CONSUMER
MNO




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THE ROLE OF THE MOBILE NETWORK OPERATOR

The MNO’s role in the delivery of Mobile Banking Applications varies from that of bearer
channel provisioning where the MNO’s role is marginal to that of full platform
provisioning where the MNO is central to the delivery of the banking application.

Bearer Channel Only

Low MNO impact/involvement where a MNO only supports the bearer channel or normal
consumer voice/data usage and the mobile banking application is built away from the
MNO and does not require the MNO for provisioning or support. An example of this
would be a JAVA application built by a vendor, where the download of the application is
dependent on the network supporting GPRS but not necessarily facilitated by the MNO.
This environment fosters an easy consumer churn as there is no lock-in to the MNO and
no benefit to the MNO over any other network in the market. It is a fairly network
agnostic environment.



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Bearer Channel and Application Development

An example of fairly low network involvement is where the MNO is required to complete
some of the application development due to the bearer channel supported. An example
of this would be where the vendor/bank make use of the MNO’s hosted USSD2 gateway
or IVR platform in the provisioning of the service. There is a dependency on the network
to develop the USSD2 menu’s or the IVR voice flows. This environment assists in
creating value for the MNO in the service offering, but is not much of a competitive
differentiator as most MNO’s would be able to offer similar solutions.
Bank Integration and MNO with a Mobile Banking HUB

An example of fairly high levels of integration and network involvement is where the
network operator would facilitate the implementation of a Mobile Banking platform or
Hub and offer the solution in a hosted environment to the banks in market.
This would require integration into the banks, customer data repositories, financial
switches, etc. The solution would also require auditing and certification.
This requires a high level of MNO involvement and also control over the application.
Giving value to the banks and to the MNO consumers and thus preventing churn and
generating new revenue streams.
SIM Application Provisioning

This requires a large amount of MNO involvement, but results in ownership of the
application which resides on the SIM which is MNO real estate.
This adds value to the consumers SIM and assists in prevention of Churn and perceived
value from the MNO to the consumer.
The MNO would need the application embedded in the SIM prior to shipping and/or have
OTA technology in place to get the application onto the SIM. The MNO would also need
data encryption on the SIM and integration into a financial institution for the processing
of transactions.

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MNO as a Bank

This is the highest level of MNO involvement in Mobile Banking or commerce. Where the
MNO enters into a joint venture with a bank or obtains a license to be a bank.
The MNO would own the entire value chain. This would be resource and technology
heavy and will take time to implement. This level of involvement would require Banking
hosts, switches, customer management systems, bearer channel development, audit
trails, reporting; etc.
It would add value to the consumer but may not be core to the networks business.











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VENDOR ANALYSIS
The vendor analysis has been completed for the purpose of providing MNO’s with
adequate information on what the vendor landscape looks like and what considerations
should be taken into account when selecting a vendor. This document supports, and
should be used in conjunction with, the GSMA Mobile Banking Vendor Analysis Spread
Sheet and the GSMA Mobile Banking Vendor Contact Sheet.
The analysis evaluates the following components:

Geographic Fit
Functionality
Service Offering (Financial Transaction type)
Bank Product Support
Bearer Channel/Consumer Application
Vendor Business Model
ASP
Licensing
Engineering
Ability to Implement
Implementation Status
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MNO Integration
Bank Integration
Complexity of implementation
Technical Architecture options
Wireless Application Service Provider’s
Application Development
Bank System support
Additional components
Audits/Certifications/Endorsements
Note that all elements of the analysis were done on a ‘have completed and launched’
basis as opposed to ‘possible or in development or trial’.
GEOGRAPHIC FIT

Assessing the vendor’s location, implementation, and representative foot print assists in
establishing the likelihood of the vendor to be able to deliver the solution in your market.
Geographic fit is defined as:
Actual Geographic presence (where the office is)
Where the vendor has implemented their solution
It is advisable to also establish where the vendor has representation in the form of actual
staff/partnerships that can adequately foster implementation as opposed to just
representation in the form of sales offices.






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MULTIPLE MARKETS
AFRICA
AMERICAS
MIDDLE EAST
EUROPE INC.UK
SOUTH ASIA
ASIA PACIFIC
Bharti TeleSoft







C-SAM







Fundamo







G-Cash







GFG







Jigrahak







mCheck







MiPay







MobiComp







Monitise







Movensis







mPay







Mpesa







mTranZact







OBOPay







PayBox







PayM8







S1(Postilion)







Simplus







SMART







Utiba







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Valista





















FUNCTIONALITY

The core functionality offered is the extension of a banks payment franchise to the
mobile phone.
This involves both the bank in the transaction offered, and the MNO in the mobile
channel used to perform the transaction.
Transactions:

While vendors support some transactions and not others, it is noted that if a vendor has
implemented transactional banking services, they would typically be able to implement
any financial transaction.
The supported transactions are categorized as:
Domestic Money Transfer

Ability to transfer money within a market
International Money Transfer
Ability to transfer money to other markets
Transactional Banking

Transactions that debit/credit an account
Informational Banking

Balance enquiries; mini statements
Top Up



Electronic re-load of airtime
Bill Payments


Utility or telco bill payments
Card Acquiring


Mobile phone as a card accepting device
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Key difference in supported transactions would relate to the banking product
implemented.
Support of card based banking products would mean that the vendor could typically
process MasterCard or Visa Card type transactions. If the vendor has only implemented
card based banking products they may have difficulty in implementing transactional
banking services direct to a bank account. And the same applies for vendors that have
not implemented card based services. If the vendor has implemented on card type
payments they would probably also only be connected to a payment gateway or
acquiring bank institution and thus be limited to process purchases.
It is also noted that some vendors offer a proprietary purse or stored value system where
there is no requirement for a bank account or bank integration. These solutions are
subject to regulatory approval in each market and are not interoperable with the global
payment systems.
Channels:

The mobile channel that the consumer will adopt is a key deciding factor on which
vendor and which technology to support. The vendor analysis outlines what the vendor
has implemented as opposed to what they can implement.
The channels identified are:
Client Side
-
SIM based/dependant applications
JAVA/J2ME
Server Side -
USSD2
IVR
SMS
WAP
Each channel presents differing benefits and concerns and can have an affect market
adoption and the security of the application.
Ironically the best technical and most secure solution (SIM) also has the highest barriers
to implementation.
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