Dubai: Between now and end of 2015, the UAE is expected to become the first country in the world that will have a fully integrated digital payment platform supported by all banks operating in the country.
The UAE Banks Federation on Wednesday formally launched the implementation of its Mobile Wallet project that was announced in February this year.
What is a mobile wallet? It is usually an account connected to a mobile phone number. Broadly speaking there are two types of wallets.
The first is a mobile wallet with a stored value on it, for example, savings in combination with other features such as payments and a loyalty card.
The money can be transferred to the mobile account either through an agent cash in, a transfer from other wallet user or a bank account/card connected to the mobile.
This stored value represents electronic money that can be transferred between wallets, internationally or used to purchase goods or services.
Another type of mobile wallet is a payment interface wallet that does not hold any stored value. This could be a solution where multiple existing debit/credit cards together with access keys, loyalty cards, etc, are managed but the money available on the different cards is handled outside of the wallet.
For the “unbanked” this is usually the first financial service reducing cash dependency and opening up for savings, insurances, micro loans and the like. For the advanced markets, some examples could be money transfers (domestic and international), family accounts, bill payments and merchant payments.
