Wednesday, September 19, 2007 Smart, UAE telco offer money transfer service
UNITED Arab Emirates’s (UAE) leading telecommunications operator, Etisalat, and Philippine wireless services provider Smart Communications Inc. have agreed to jointly develop and launch an international money transfer service using mobile phones.
The partnership was sealed with the signing of a memorandum of understanding (MOU) at the GITEX Technology Week, an international technology trade exhibition held in Dubai. The MOU was signed by Essa Al Haddad, chief marketing officer of Etisalat, and Jojo Malolos, Smart head of international business-Smarthub Financial Services Group.
Smart, which has been actively promoting mobile commerce in the country since 2000, will be the technology enabler of the Etisalat service.
Etisalat will utilize Smart’s mobile commerce platform, the Smart Services Hub, a global financial and telecommunications services model based on the Smart Money electronic financial services platform. Smart Money is an electronic wallet card linked to a mobile phone.
Through the Smart Money platform, telcos and banks can offer mobile phone-based remittances that enable beneficiaries to send funds back home anytime, anywhere. As an additional security feature, senders will be able to track transactions until the funds reach the designated recipients.
The remittance service will be initially offered in the UAE and will later be rolled out to other Etisalat service areas such as Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, Afghanistan and to Etisalat’s West African Subsidiaries under the Atlantique Group.
The partnership is in line with Smart’s efforts to promote mobile commerce (m-commerce) services and mobile phone-based remittances. Smart’s m-commerce systems are available to international mobile operators, and international and domestic banks, enabling them to provide a broader range of secure data and transactional services.
For Estilat, the “Money Transfer Over Mobile” service is part of its broader mobile commerce strategy, which involves the introduction of various mobile payment solutions. (PR)
