Hello MobileMoney Canada. Hope all is well. In case you have not heard the news as yet, I thought that you may be interested in announcement just released by Scotiabank.Scotiabank will be launching mobile banking with a solution from M-Com in thespring. The details are below. 

Does anyone mind sharing their opinion on whatthis means to the Canadian mobile banking landscape? 

Toronto, Canada 

24 November 2009 

Scotiabank today announced a new partnership withM-Com, an international mobile banking and payments solution provider, thatwill bring mobile banking to Scotiabank customers in the spring of 2010. 

"With over 22 million cell phone subscribersin Canada, wireless phones are among the fastest growing consumer products inhistory," said Mike Henry, Senior Vice President, Sales & Service,Scotiabank. "Canadians rely on the convenience of mobile devices to helpthem manage their busy lifestyles, and having the ability to do their bankingfrom their mobile devices would simplify their lives that much more." 

"The launch of mobile banking for Scotiabankcustomers next spring further demonstrates our commitment to offeringinnovative, convenient and secure banking solutions for our customers"continued Mr. Henry. 

Scotiabank's mobile banking service will providepersonal and small business customers with easy access to their Scotiabankaccounts from their mobile device, regardless of their mobile service provider.Customers will be able to view balances and transaction history, pay bills andmake transfers. 

"We are delighted to be partnering withScotiabank to bring our mobile banking expertise to Canada," said AdamClark, CEO, M-Com. "We will be leveraging our experience delivering mobilebanking solutions internationally to extend our 100% implementation successrate. By spring 2010, any Scotiabank customer with a mobile device can havesecure access to their bank accounts – anywhere, any time." 

Please click on the link that follows for the fullannouncement and details on how to contact M-Com for more info. 

http://mobile-financial.com/node/3229/Scotiabank-Partners-With-M-Com-to-Bring-Mobile-Banking-To-Canadians

I had the pleasure of participating as both a panelist and moderator at the Mobile Money Canada event last week. It was a fantastic gathering of professionals actively involved in the Mobile Financial Services industry in Canada. I would like to recap some highlights from the session I participated in entitled: "What is the right Mobile Money approach for Canada? Bank Centric, Mobile Operator Centric, or Collaboration?"  The other guest panellists included:

1. Patrick Kelly, SVP Business Development at Monitise Americas
2. Jason Hurlbut, Vice President, Global Sales & Business Development at CPNI Inc.
3. Aran Hamilton, Vice President - Strategic Partnerships at EnStream LP

• Aran Hamilton assured the audience that all the major Canadian Operators (Bell, Rogers & Telus) were not vying for 'ownership' of the end consumer with regards mobile financial service offerings. Rather the carriers see themselves as being enablers for this service offering and that Canadian banks would ultimately own the customer relationship. Mr. Hamilton explained that this was the main reason the 3 carriers jointly created Enstream in order to provide this interoperable platform for banks to use.

• A member of the audience, representing Telus Mobility, reaffirmed Mr. Hamilton's statement about ownership of the consumer relationship and the desire of the canadian operators to have this managed by banks.

• There was a consensus that both carriers and banks offer unique benefits to the mobile financial ecosystem and that the industry should be forward looking in realizing that a lot more opportunities for service innovation can be realized if both parties collaborate.

• It was pointed out that the consumer should be the prime focus in determining the right service model as ultimately it is the consumer that must benefit in order for there to be success. When the consumer benefits then there will be tangible benefits to all parties in the ecosystem. As a result, operators and carriers should not attempt to implement a Bank or Mobile centric model but rather start from the consumer up and determine what hybrid model best suits their needs. This will differ from market to market which is why we see different success stories in various countries around the globe.

• There should not be any confusion on how banks & operators both cooperate and compete in this space. The analogy was drawn to technology vendors that compete on emerging technologies, whereby they collaborate on matters that impede progress of the industry (by creating industry standards and standards bodies) and compete in areas where they can differentiate themselves. Likewise banks and operators must cooperate to establish common industry standards and interoperability for mobile financial services. Once this is done the industry as a whole can progress and the various players can begin to differentiate themselves with value added services, pricing, and incentives, etc.

Dear Mobile Money Canada Attendees,

Thank you for participating in the first Mobile Money Canada Conference. Your involvement has enriched the overall experience of all of us within the Canadian mobile financial services industry and I appreciate that you were able to take time out of your schedule to attend and contribute.

I thoroughly enjoyed meeting with and learning from many of you at the conference and I look forward to continuing the dialogue with you as our industry evolves in Canada. I was also thrilled to hear about many of the innovative mobile money initiatives that many of you are currently working on…Keep up the great work!

Just to let you know, we have had several requests for the presentation slides used by our incredible speakers and panelists. We will be posting those online in the coming days and I will let you know as soon as they are ready. We will also be sharing the video footage of the day’s sessions online, so please stay tuned for that.

I would also like to take a moment to thank each of you for sharing your invaluable feedback about the conference within the surveys, as well as in our follow up conversations that we have had this week. We intend on taking all of the feedback, including the good, the bad, and the ugly, and using it to improve future events and activities.

In the spirit of collaboration and community, we are also hard at work at launching a community section on our Mobile Money Canada website that will allow members to blog and participate in discussion forums focused specifically on mobile financial services in Canada. We will let you all know as soon as that is ready.

Please do reach out if you would like to get involved in the Mobile Money Canada movement in the coming months. I have already heard from several of you and we are very interested in the ideas that have been offered up, including conducting future networking events and webinars, presenting case studies and market research, and more. We are fully supportive of anything that will help our industry colleagues. If you do have something to share, please send me a note, and we will figure out a way to provide it to the community.

Thanks again and talk soon,

Brent Ho-Young
Mobile Money Canada Chair

Hello Canada,

The Mobile Money Canada conference is almost here.  With just under one week to go, the schedule is set, the event is at capacity, and we are just making final preparations to ensure that all participants have a great experience.

I want to personally thank all of those instrumental in making the first Mobile Money Canada Conference a reality.  We now have speakers and delegates from over 60 companies that are active in Canada; including banks, mobile operators, remittance providers, mobile financial solution providers, venture capitalists, and many more.  With representatives from all across the industry, we are in for a great day of mobile money discussions and networking.

I do apologize to those that we were not able to accept for the event – the interest was higher than we anticipated.  We’ll make sure though to publish a full report post conference through our Mobile Money Canada group on LinkedIn.  To join our Mobile Money Group, please register at: http://www.linkedin.com/groups?gid=2255632&trk=hb_side_g.   

Thanks again for your support of Mobile Money Canada.   I’m looking forward to a full day of learning, re-connecting with colleagues, and developing new relationships with those active and interested in the growth of the Canadian mobile financial services industry.   

See you soon!

Brent
Mobile Money Canada Chair

P.S…To see the final agenda, please visit:  www.mobilemoneycanada.com/agenda

A recent article from the Toronto Star describes the many challenges that low income Canadians experience with credit cards. The article is written by Rita Trichur and can be accessed at: http://www.thestar.com/business/article/717130--credit-cards-still-bey
ond-reach?bn=1

The article suggests that although credit cards are the “preferred mode of payment” in Canada, there are many consumers that are not able to obtain card products. Without credit cards, lower income and individuals without credit histories, are not able to access the basic goods and services that many Canadians take for granted (i.e. buying mobile content, renting cars, proving identification etc.).

The article also provides an overview of the results of a study on lack of access to plastic money by the Public Interest Advocacy Centre “PIAC”. The study states that “Ottawa and card issuers collaborate on creating a new financial product that could serve as a financial credential and be also used as the key component of a payment system that can be recognized by issuers' networks and databases.”

As soon as I read that, I thought to myself that many of our experts from the mobile financial community would have more than a few ideas about what that new financial product could be for Canada.

So how about it? Does anyone have any recommendations about how mobile money products can help provide access to products and services for poor and financially marginalized Canadians?

I'm sure that the the authors of the study would like to hear about the innovative ways that mobile money is already solving this exact problem in countries around the world.