Nokia today confirmed its ambition to
move into the services sector with the launch of Nokia Money, a
mobile financial service that allows consumers with mobile devices
to access basic financial services.
Mary McDowell, Nokia's chief development officer, said the
world had four billion mobile phones but only 1.6 billion bank
accounts.
Nokia plans to roll out the service gradually to selected
markets, beginning in early 2010.
"We believe mobile financial services offer a market opportunity
with long-term growth potential. In many countries, mobile phone
ownership significantly exceeds bank account usage. This suggests
that many mobile phone users have very limited or no access to
basic financial services," she said.
Nokia has tied up and invested in the US online payments service
Obopay.
Nokia Money is based on Obopay's mobile payment platform, with
unique and newly developed mobile elements. Nokia intends the
service to be open and interoperable with other payment services
too.
Obopay's prepaid cards are issued by the Bancorp Bank under
license from MasterCard International Incorporated. Its partners
include Citibank, AT&T, Verizon and Research in Motion
(BlackBerry).
Nokia Money will run around the clock and let consumers send
money to another person just by using that person's mobile phone
number. They can pay merchants for goods and services, pay their
utility bills, or recharge their prepaid SIM cards.
Nokia is building a network of Nokia Money agents, where
consumers will be able to deposit money or withdraw cash from their
accounts.
Nokia's head of corporate business development Teppo Paavola
said rural consumers will benefit particularly from money
transfers. "For urban consumers used to online services, we are
enabling services such as payment of utility bills, purchase of
train and movie tickets, top-ups, all through their mobile phones,"
he said.
The service will be shown for the first time at
Nokia
World, 2-3 September 2009 in Stuttgart, Germany.