NextGen Mobile Wallets: The Slim Billfolds May Prove More Lucrative

• by Ann Platt
• Jul 18, 2011
• 1 min
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This note discussed that mobile wallets are no different from any other aspect of financial inclusion. The dominant player is still usually the bank.

Mobile wallets are often discussed, and often misunderstood, as the new way to think about payments and banking services-for both rich and poor. Mobile phones may be the only technology that is equally interesting to both ends of the economic spectrum right now.

Mobile wallets are no different from any other aspect of financial inclusion .The dominant player is still usually the bank. Nevertheless, seamless cooperation amongst all players matters more for m-wallets than most inclusion efforts. And two recent announcements-a Google-Citibank-First Data collaboration and Square, a new m-wallet led by Twitter’s founder Jack Dorsey-augur well for both low-income customers and retailers around the world without credit-card terminals, electronic cash-registers, and other expensive POS devices.