GSMA has announced new remittance partners for its mobile money transfer program.
The GSMA said it had forged partnerships with Belgacom International Carrier Services (Belgacom ICS) and its technology partner eServGlobal. It has chosen the Royal Bank of Scotland Group (RBS Group) as a remittance partner and is working with them to finalize the offering.
The GSMA said at the Mobile World Congress that the new partnerships complemented what it says is a successful alliance with Western Union Company over the past 18 months.
"Since the launch of the MMT program in 2007, we've made significant progress to catalyze the mobile money market,' said Bill Gajda, chief commercial officer for the GSMA.
So far the GSMA has delivered live commercial deployments of mobile remittances and established five active corridors with Western Union. It has also increased the number of markets served from three to 54, and moved the market from one wholesale remittance provider in 2007 to 12 providers today, Gajda noted.
"In addition, we've established price points that enable mobile operators to offer affordable services to consumers, which will make remittances much more accessible to a larger addressable market."
Separately, Telecom Italia Sparkle and Bharti Telesoft announced the Borderless Recharge HUB in second quarter 2009. It supports third-party electronic recharge and wallet platforms to enable account top-up and airtime transfers for prepaid subscribers outside their home network.