M-Com Launches Mobile Banking and Payments Platform for Emerging Markets
World-leading BankAnywhere Product Available to Financial Institutions in Developing Economies
19 April 2010
Atlanta, Georgia
International mobile banking solution provider, M-Com, announced today that it has launched an Emerging Markets edition of its flagship product – BankAnywhere.
"BankAnywhere has been servicing banks in developed countries since May 2002," comments M-Com CEO and Founder, Adam Clark. "Given the specific needs and constraints of banks within emerging markets, we decided to tailor some of its core functionality. We have made it easier than ever for consumers in developing economies to pay bills, top up, receive vouchers and send each other money through the trusted brands of their financial institutions. In other words, for banks in developing nations, this is an M-Commerce platform in-a-box."
The product is an extension and adaptation of BankAnywhere to meet the business and technical requirements of banks and payment processors in less advanced banking markets. Examples of new features and functionality added to the Emerging Markets edition of BankAnywhere include:
• Universal mobile phone support across SMS, mobile browser and downloaded applications for devices in developing economies. Support for Unstructured Supplementary Service Data (USSD) will be released in the next iteration of the product.
• Augmented enrollment and customer management options for 'offline users' (consumers whose activity is primarily cash-based).
• The introduction of a billing aggregation processor to manage bill presentment and payment.
• Payment acceptance capabilities for 'agencies' and retail merchants.
• Voucher and commission management for prepaid services such as top up.
• Enhancements to BankAnywhere's mobile wallet (the Value Manager).
• More flexible risk and security monitoring and management capabilities through M-Com's Mobile SafeGuard™ framework.
The product has been built leveraging the Microsoft .NET Framework 3.5 using Visual Studio 2008, and is best deployed on Windows Server 2008 and SQL Server 2008.
"Banking customers worldwide have many options and channels, requiring financial services firms to engage them through a highly personalized, connected experience – from lifestyle to work style – that builds strong relationships, creates customer intimacy and boosts loyalty," said Joe Pagano , Managing Director, Banking and Capital Markets, Worldwide Financial Services Sector, Microsoft. "As M-Com's BankAnywhere running on a Microsoft platform clearly demonstrates, our approach provides multi-channel integration that allows banks to benefit from mobile channels as part of the overall connected customer experience."
ACLEDA Bank Plc from Cambodia is the first customer to deploy M-Com's Emerging Markets edition of BankAnywhere. The deployed solution currently enables ACLEDA's customers to inquire and receive alerts relating to their bank accounts as well as making a broad range of payments from their mobile phones. A broad range of mobile technologies – such as SMS, mobile browser and downloaded applications – are natively supported within the implementation, as are both English and Khmer scripts, and multiple currencies.
"Everybody knows that much of the growth in retail banking and payments is occurring in emerging markets. Enhancing our product to address the specific requirements of such markets will benefit M-Com, its growing list of banking customers and consumers-at-large who want better, faster and more convenient financial services" Mr. Clark continues.
About M-Com
Headquartered in Atlanta, GA, M-Com is an international mobile banking and payments solution provider with live Fortune 500 banking customers across Asia Pacific, the Middle East, Europe and North America. M-Com's core proposition is centered on helping financial institutions and payment processors deliver world class adoption and revenue metrics from the mobile channel.
Contact: Serge van Dam, Head of Marketing, +1 678 369 0602, serge.vandam@mcom.co.nz, www.m-com.us.
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