RBC, CIBC, & Visa to headline the Mobile Banking Track at the 3rd Annual Mobile Money Canada Conference, Sept 27th 2011 in Toronto Canada.
Executives from leading Canadian providers of Mobile Financial services, RBC, CIBC, and Visa will headline the 3rd Annual Mobile Money Canada Conference’s Mobile Banking track. 
Mobile Money Canada 2011 will occur on September 27, 2011 at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre in Toronto, Canada. 
Join Steve Tyers, VP of eChannels Strategy at CIBC Retail & Business Banking, and Sharad Ojha, Head of Mobile Channel Strategy at RBC, as they share their own experiences and perspectives on how best to approach a rapidly changing and growing channel to deliver better customer services, retain market share and protect or enhance revenues. 
Mobile Money Canada 2011 offers the unique opportunity to learn from Canada’s leading financial institutions about what it takes to design, launch, operate, and scale mobile banking services. RBC and CIBC operate two of the most advanced, secure, and popular mobile banking services available in North Americas. Mobile Money Canada 2011 is delighted to have both banks participate in the conference and share insights about their mobile banking experience and the future of mobile financial services in

I wanted to share some exciting mobile money news with you. The 3rd Annual Mobile Money Canada Conference will occur on September 27, 2011 at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre.

If you are involved in any aspect of mobile money, this is going to be the event of the year in Canada.

We are pleased to announce that the mobile money industry's two leading visionaries, Michael Joseph of Safaricom M-Pesa and Karim Khoja of Roshan M-Paisa, are our distinguished conference keynote speakers. They will share their insights and experiences on what it takes to design, launch, and operate successful mobile money services. This will be like having the Michael Jordan and Babe Ruth of our industry in the house at the same time to help you drive the growth of your own mobile money initiatives - you will not want to miss this.

The conference will also feature speakers and sponsors from the leading mobile banking, mobile payment, and mobile money transfers firms around the world, including BOKU Inc., Kony Solutions, Telepin Software, Yankee Group, Western Union, DonRiver Inc., and more. Our additional speakers to date include the following:

- Anant Tailor,

2011 Mobile Money Forum – Event Summary
The 2nd annual Mobile Money Forum hosted by Neotelis took place earlier this week on June 21st and 22nd at the Hyatt Regency Hotel in Montreal.  The folks at Neotelis did a fabulous job of pulling together key participants from within the Canadian Mobile Money ecosystem as well as experts from other parts of the world. 
The conference spanned two full days and covered key Mobile Money topics including Mobile Commerce, Mobile & Contactless Payments, Mobile Wallets, and Mobile Money Transfer.
The following are some common themes that arose in several of the sessions:

• Mobile Contactless Payments (proximity payments) are still 1-2 years out.  Much work has been done and several of the pieces are falling into place, but the ecosystem to support mobile contactless payments has not been completely flushed out at this point
• Consumers don’t fully understand the concept of a Mobile Wallet or the value that it will bring to them.  The value proposition for consumers needs to be very clear and well-communicated in order to initiate a change in consumer behavior
• The

 

Good day all,

 

M-Com, a mobile banking and payments platform provider has been acquired by Fiserv.  This is big news for the industry as both companies have hundreds of mobile banking deployments across the U.S., Canada, and around the world.  M-Com has been active in mobile financial services since 2000 and should be a valuable asset for growth for Fiserv.  

 

I heard from M-Com's head of marketing last night, Serge van Dam.  Although he was not able to provide details to me regarding the acquisition, he did let me know that this represents the start of even better things to come for both companies, and the industry in general.  2011 should be interesting times indeed for mobile financial services.

 

If you are interested in the press announcement regarding the transaction, please see below.   

  

  Fiserv,

Hi Mobile Money Folks,
Hope all is well.  I was forwarded a job posting that I thought might interest some of you out there. Scotiabank, one of Canada's largest and most international banks, is looking for someone to lead their mobile banking initiatives. If you are interested, please see the post below.  Best of luck!    

Director Mobile Banking INTBK

Toronto, Ontario, Canada

POSITION SUMMARY:

The Director, Mobile Banking isa new role resulting from the integration of all non-branch channels inInternational Banking. Reporting to the Vice President, Online, Mobile,ATM and Automated Telephone Banking, the position is responsible for developing a compelling, cost-effective customer experience in the Mobile Banking channel. Through collaborative strategy development the Director, Mobile Banking identifies and leads initiatives and channel enhancements (products; services; capabilities) that increase channel sales and revenues.
You will work directly with Country representatives, Systems & Tehnology, Operations, Sales & Service, Marketing and Business Line partners to promote and grow usage of the Mobile Banking channel.

KEY ACCOUNTABILITIES:

You will be responsible for:

• Strategic direction and development of the Mobile Banking channel.
• Developing 'best in class' Mobile channel capabilities.
• Delivering a 'top-tier' customer experience in the Mobile Banking

So where do operators actually drive revenue from in a mobile money project? The business case is built around a few main sources:

1) Commissions on Transactions: Probably the most obvious source of revenue is the commission that is paid by end users on each transaction. Mobile money service providers need to be careful of how they price these fees, since they should still be cheaper than traditional transfer services but high enough to warrant the investment in the service. The key to being profitable in this area is to drive a high volume of transactions

2) Subscription Fees: Another fee that can be paid by end users is a subscription fee for the service. Use with caution! Your objective is to encourage registrations and in particular viral registrations - a subscription fee may hinder this objective

3) Customer Acquisition and Increased Sales: Offering mobile money services presents an opportunity to sell more airtime or to acquire off-net customers. If your service is first to market than the opportunity is even sweeter!

4) Cut Costs: A mobile money service can often reduce the commissions that are paid to airtime dealers since airtime can

If you are interested, in Mobile Payments, you will want to watch this interview with Jack Dorsey, Twitter Chairman and Square founder.  Jack describes that the secret to Square's success is its simplicity.  

 In addition, for those still trying to figure out Twitter, he breaks down how Twitter came into its existence and why it is as important as the overall web.  The video is 25 minutes and worth the watch.  

You can watch the video here:

http://www.charlierose.com/view/interview/11404 

 

You can also read the transcript of the interview here:

http://techcrunch.com/2011/01/11/jack-dorsey-charlie-rose/ 

 

Cheers,

Brent 

Hello & Happy Holidays,

For those of you who may be looking for a new career opportunity in 2011, you may be interested in a position that was recently referred to me by an industry colleague.

The hiring company is VendTek. VendTek, develops and licenses software for the global prepaid and financial services markets.  VendTek is currently recruiting an experienced Mobile Money Project Manager for Mobile Money implementation and launch work in Kabul, Afghanistan.

The ideal candidate thrives in a fast paced environment, is passionate about mobility and financial services, has 5 years of project management experience within Mobile Network Operators and/or Financial Institutions, and has enterprise software and/or mobile application development experience.

The responsibilities for the position will include the following:

- Working with Mobile Network Operator client personnel to plan, manage, and launch innovative mobile money products and services.

- Leading teams designing, developing, and deploying mobile banking, mobile payment, and mobile money transfer applications across mobile, web, and retail channels. Mobile channels include USSD, STK’s, IVR, feature phones, and smart phone platforms.

- Creation and management of the project plan, management of all risks, issues, and dependencies, preparation of weekly status reports, and assignment of resources to specific work activities.

If you are interested in

 

Dear Mobile Money Canada Attendees, 

Thank you for participating in the Mobile Money Canada 2010 Conference. On behalf of DonRiver, Mobile-Financial.com, our speakers, and all of the conference sponsors, I would like to thank you for making the event valuable to all of the attendees by contributing your time, sharing your insights, and networking within the group. 

We had an extremely full day that included 16 speakers, 10 presentations & panels, 2 workshops, 3 networking sessions, and most importantly, close to 175 attendees from Canada and around the world. Wow. I am delighted by the turnout and amazed that we all got through so much in one day. Thanks to everyone that made this a reality. 

I have heard from many of you and I am very pleased to learn that the consensus is that Mobile Money Canada 2010 was even better than last year’s conference. I believe that the improvement can be attributed to the outstanding array of speakers, and our sponsors, who provided the necessary support to keep the event complimentary and guarantee the high quality of experienced industry experts. Our speakers and sponsors have helped to provide Canadian mobile financial services

Hello Mobile Money Professionals,

I am pleased to announce that the Mobile Money Canada 2010 Conference is almost here and has come together extremely well.  I am thoroughly amazed at the talented and experienced mobile money innovators that will be on hand to discuss, educate, and debate all aspects of this growing industry in Canada. 

For those that attended last year’s conference, you will be delighted to know that this year’s conference will include presentations and case studies from an expanded sent of mobile money service and solution providers including SunTrust Bank, EnStream, Western Union Canada, MasterCard, PayPal, Telepin, and M-Com.

We will also have a special guest at the conference from the developing world. Zahir Khoja, Executive Director of M-Paisa, Afghanistan’s first mobile money transfer service, will describe the challenges of bringing Mobile Money to Afghanistan.  I am sure that many of the lessons learned that Zahir will share will be applicable to the developed world as well.   

If you have not registered as yet, please do so today at www.mobilemoneycanada.com.  We only have room for a few more people and as such, we are reserving those spaces for individuals involved with mobile money rollouts from