Mobey Forum Gives Mobile Financial Services Another Boost

It wasn't too long ago that I wrote a blog about a new mobile financial services standards working group that was being established by the Financial Services Technology Consortium (FSTC). The group hopes to address the interoperability issues facing the industry to help adoption rates. Now, over the Atlantic in Finland, the Mobey Forum, a nonprofit financial industry forum that helps facilitate mobile financial services for banks, issued a whitepaper which, it says, lays the groundwork for global mobile financial services (MFS).Specifically, the paper looks at the security element on the handset. It outlines guidelines for establishing mobile financial services "ecosystems" that share a critical security component in the handset itself, such as the SIM card. According to the group, the paper addresses the needs not just of the banks, but of other players in the mobile space as well-something that is very crucial to making mobile live up to its potential.

According to a release: "A range of 'shared security' MFS business models ranging from co-ownership of the secure element to renting space, are presented. The research document goes on to analyze the critical issue of enrolment in a multi-application environment. Mobey Forum's analysis targets the creation of mass-market friendly business models that are able to provide transparent links between a bank and customers-irrespective of the particular mobile networks users subscribe to. The role of the Trusted Service Manager is widely agreed by the industry to be a crucial enabler for facilitating MFS markets."