By Heather McLean

Citibank head of mobile solutions says all contributors in ecosystem must benefit for this industry to be a success.

Tomasz Smilowicz, Citibank’s global head of mobile solutions for global transaction services, has stated that banks, financial institutions and mobile operators must all benefit from mobile payment projects, if the area is to be a success.

At the Mobile World Congress Mobile Money conference, Mobile Strategies for Financial Institutions, Smilowicz commented that everyone must win in the mobile money arena. He added that he estimates the area will be able to be regarded a success within three years from now.

Smilowicz said: “When we work in mobile money, it needs to be a win-win-win situation. We need lots of wins. The first mobile payment services were launched in Finland in 1997, buying Coca Cola from a vending machine. Now, 17 years on, this area is becoming a success.

“I expect in the next year you will hear multiple times what we are doing in this area, and I expect others are doing the same. I will tell you, that in the next two to three years, mobile money will be a success.”

Smilowicz added: “Our role and responsibility is to make sure mobile network operator projects in mobile money become successful. It’s very important to make sure there is a flow of money to support mobile cash projects, to think of ways to get money into the system; we very much believe that in mobile money, we are looking for a down to earth solution.

“Regualtors and central banks are working together on three important criteria in mobile money: understanding the flow of money in a country; looking at anti money laundering; and security, which has a very important role and it’s important that mobile operators understand that and explain to regulators how that can be achieved,” he said.

Quoting research from Sybase 365, which questioned individual users of mobile phones on what services they would be interested in receiving in the area of mobile money, Smilowicz said the research showed ticketing was the point of most interest (36%). This was followed by billing (34%), shopping (32%) and parking (30%).

He concluded: “Altogether, 57% of mobile operators think they’ll get their money back on a mobile money project in three years. We agree with that.”