Mobile

I haven’t written about Ant and Alipay for a while, but did notice this press release the other day which is significant. The company is is now creating a payment ecosystem for Asian e-wallets. It’s not just Chinese. It’s everywhere Asia. Take note: Ant Group Introduces 10 Asian E-Wallets to Chinese Mainland in Major Expansion of…

I’ve said for years that the mobile network revolution includes everyone. Anyone who can find a friend with a mobile telephone can talk, trade and transact. Many have mocked my message, but the message is consistent: technology has transformed our planet. This is evidenced by that there are almost four billion more mobile connections than people…

There are lies, darned lies and statistics. This came to my mind when I saw a headline that 70% of the $1 trillion transacted by mobile telephones globally were taking place in Africa, according to the GSMA (Global System for Mobile Communications Association). I know that this is not true as trillions are being transacted…

Focusing just on the payments space, there are many folks making forecasts for 2022. Here are the highlights. The Financial Brand lists seven major trends for 2022: The ‘P2P’ Wars Will Continue Unabated Despite All the New Stuff, Cards (and Cash) Roll On BNPL: The Payments Wild Card It’s A Wallet! It’s a Platform! It’s Super…

When I wrote the Captain Cake series and pivoted to be a children’s author as well as a FinTech guy, a friend said that I should write a children’s book about FinTech, which I did. It’s not something aimed at publication as a book, but thought I would share with you what I came up…

Someone rightly pointed out that I talk a lot about Ant Group but not enough about other major initiatives like YONO, the mobile wallet of India. India is also a hotbed of innovation, with Google and Amazon fighting out the financial payments space alongside other players like PayTM and SBI, the State Bank of India….

I first started blogging about smart mobile wallets in earnest in 2014. Back then, the mobile network operators were starting to get active and to try and bring the M-PESA and other experiences to the modern world. But no one wanted them. Six years later, mobile wallets are still pretty dire in most of Europe…

I just found three interesting management reports. One is a survey from Salt Edge on the lack of success of the use APIs and Open Banking, two years after the introduction of PSD2; the second is from the GSMA on the state of mobile financial services; and the third is a great white paper by…

I just received a report from Deloitte about credit and debit cards. It says the future is not so bright: “more payment choices, along with changing consumer preferences, are threatening the long-term viability of the credit card business model.” Damn. I said that fifteen years ago. It made me think about what I was presenting…

An interesting report came out this week saying that UK consumers would access mobile banking apps more often than branches in the next two years. It got covered on the BBC, Sky News and lots of other media, but I was thinking in the next two years? It just shows how far behind the curve…