M-Pesa is a Small-Value Electronic Payment and Store of Value System that is Accessible from Ordinary Mobile Phones. It Has Seen Exceptional Growth Since its Introduction by Mobile Phone Operator Safaricom in Kenya in March 2007: It Has Already Been Adopted by 9 Million Customers (Corresponding...

Retail payment systems require scale to get off the ground and struggle to grow incrementally, as they need to build trust, reap network effects and overcome chicken-and-egg problems of acquiring both customers and merchants. To overcome these barriers, they must (i) create enough urgency in...

We explore five different transition paths to the realization of an inclusive, affordable, real-time money grid that connects all citizens. The five paths represent different ways to deal with the business model challenges of defeating the tyranny of scale and the construction of fuller customer...

This paper explores how the broad financial decision-making practices commonly employed by poor people (as depicted in the companion paper “Money Resolutions, A Sketchbook”) could be supported through a digital financial service platform. We focus on two particular practices: money animation...

The contribution of mobile payments (and in particular M-PESA) in Kenya to strengthening family/social networks is well documented, and its potential to tackle financial inclusion is well understood. What has perhaps received less attention is how well mobile money is serving the business...

Across the world mobile money schemes are being launched. In such schemes financial service providers interact with clients via mobile phones or other mobile devices such as tablets. Service offerings include payments and saving as well as basic insurance products and sometimes credit based on...

This note reviews the Spanish experience with regulating the competition aspects of new mobile payment networks in the absence of formal technical standards. The saga is in two parts, as the strategy of the early movers, dominant telco Telefonica and leading bank BBVA, changed radically in...