Creating a Mobile Interoperable Payment Infrastructure

As India crosses the 200 million subscriber milestone, banks and financial institutions have been attmpting to find the panacea to address the opportunity of mobile based payments.

The primary needs remain in the area of fund transfers and remote payment enablement. But the key challenge lies in the adoption of a standard that can be used uniformly across all institutions and consumers.

Mobipay has implemented a business model wherein they have effectively aggreated the leading banks, mobile operators and merchants into a single platform. The optimal, scalable and cost effective model of choice for any market with multiple players.

MPesa is another service launched by a Vodafone subsidiary, targeting the area of fund transfers. It's been expanding rapidly but lays open the fundamental questions on the roles of a mobile operator vis a vis that of a bank.

Would be great hearing your views !