Remit money using your phone soon
Etisalat subscribers will soon be able to send remittances to their home country via mobile wallet applications.
Mobile wallet systems enable customers to use their mobile phones to pay for transactions at merchants that accept such payments. To do so, a user simply uploads digital cash to their mobile and swipes the phone at payment counters or ticketing machines.
"We have carried out market research and at least $7 billion (Dh25.75bn) is being remitted by expats from the UAE to their home countries," Rashed Majed Al Abbar, Senior Manager, Product Marketing – eBusiness, told Emirates Business. "Globally, in terms of remittances, the UAE ranks third after US and Saudi Arabia.
"Etisalat has initially looked at India, Bangladesh, the Philippines, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. However, India is not yet ready for mobile wallet accounts for remittances as there are some regulatory issues and security concerns. Etisalat is talking to the Reserve Bank of India about these matters.
"But in the Philippines people are already using mobile wallet solutions. The beneficiaries in the home country just have to register with a mobile wallet service and there is no need for a bank account. There is a large unbanked population that will benefit from such services."
Consumers will find the remittance fees lower than those charged for transferring money via exchanges. Al Abbar said: "The charges will be competitive compared to exchange houses. We will be working with a strategic channel to register mobile numbers and also with international banks in these countries."
Etisalat is already providing mobile commerce SMS services to RTA as well as a mobile balance top-up service that it plans to extend across its entire Gulf network.
The telecom operator enables customers to make payments via mobiles using credit cards. A user requires a near field communications (NFC) enabled phone and SIM card to make such a transaction. The company has been working on a pilot project with Emirates NBD since last June. Its competitor, du, launched a pilot project this week with Dubai First facilitating credit card payments to customers living at Jumeirah Beach Residence.
Etisalat chose to work with Emirates NBD because it has the largest customer base. Emirates NBD has linked up with Network International, which is a partner of both Visa and Mastercard.
"All the handset manufacturers will launch NFC-enabled phones by the end of the year in accordance with directions from the GSM Association," said Al Abbar. "The phones will also have to conform to the SDP standard. Nokia is set to launch phones based on these standards by the fourth quarter."
Etisalat plans to upgrade its SIM cards to enable the use of NFC applications in the future. "There is a plan to increase the memory as customers will require additional capacity to run applications," he said.
Keep up with the latest business news from the region with the Emirates Business 24|7 daily newsletter. To subscribe to the newsletter, please click here.