Archive for: News

• Zain Nigeria Employing 8,000 Staff to Protect its Base Stations
• Google News launches in 9 African countries
• Banks, Cognitive Dissonance and Underserved Consumers
• FINO plans smartcards for money transfers
• Banks panic over M-Pesa, Sokotele
• Postal Payment Service Agreement to expand unbanked money transfers

• Mobile Banking for the Poor
• Obopay, Grameen in alliance for mobile banking services
• Equity ranked top Bank
• Citibank and Octopus Team Up for Co-branded Card
• RFID Technology Comes of Age as Price is Right for Banks
• Mobile Subscribers to Hit 5.2 Billion in 2011

• Open Standards - It’s Not Just Good for the Internet
• Getting ready for chip and PIN
• HP, Intel, Yahoo Join Government, Academia In Cloud Computing Research
• What If Obopay Cannot Provide An API?
• Grameen, Bakrie, Qualcomm enable telecom access in Indonesia
• Visa Says Money Transfer Service Gaining Global Adoption

• Pakistan: PM briefed on SBP’s initiatives on agri credit
• Absa launches new prepaid debit card
• Bangladesh’s Grameenphone to raise 300 mln dollar IPO
• Is Barclay’s Hello Money secure?
• MasterCard to Enable P-to-P Mobile Payments by Cell Phone

• The wizard behind Kenya’s first online payment system
• Airtel ties up with SKS Microfinance
• Microebb and microflows
• Nokia reinvents itself in a new era

• Nokia Plans Mobile Software Surge With Open-Source Symbian
• Citi/SK Telecom Joint Venture Announces Mobile Financial Services Application Compatible with Android
• Safaricom gives back airtime to 57,000 customers over error
• Guide To Cloud Computing
• Chidambaram sets deadline for loan waiver to banks
• China market: 1Q08 third-party e-payment services total over 45 billion yuan in trade
• IBM Opens Africa’s First “Cloud Computing” Center, Second Cloud Center in China

I came across an RSS feed today from Vital Wave Consulting which tracks technology/emerging markets stories via the shared bookmarking service called del.icio.us. A really eclectic and useful group of stories there, including pieces from the Economist on Safaricom, the Bloomberg column on the future of mobile banking for poor people, even a story (confusingly enough) on a solar-powered flashlight.

• Mexico says could regulate mobile operators
• GSMA says cutting mobile-specific taxes would boost government revenue
• Down To Business: Customers Fire A Few Shots At Cloud Computing
• Cash in hand: why Africans are banking on the mobile phone
• State Bank of Pakistan to hold Development Finance conference

• The pinstripes chase the poor
• Uganda: Telecoms Want Taxes on Airtime Abolished
• Unisys Research Reveals Most Consumers Worldwide Won’t Use Mobile Devices to Conduct Financial Transactions
• Microfinance to provide cheap handsets to poor
• ABN AMRO to give away a mobile phone every day
• Equifax, Fair Isaac Partner for Analytics, Scoring Solutions
• The iPhone as money

The Reserve Bank of India issued draft guidelines on mobile banking today. They are accepting comments through June 30.

Here is a report from the Business Standard on the move. Excerpt:

The wait for rolling out mobile banking seems to be over, with the Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI) issuing draft operative norms for such payment system. Now, RBI said, it will be easier and safer to use mobile phones for carrying out a gamut of banking transactions.

Banks can offer mobile-based services only to their own customers. Banks should have a system of registration before commencing mobile-based payment service to a customer, RBI said.