The long view. I happened to be leafing through my (signed) copy of "Services for UMTS" by Forum friend Tomi Ahonen and his colleague Joe Barrett. In section 7.10, writing a decade ago, they say that "becoming a trusted partner money community should therefore be a strategic priority for the mobile service networks". This was an obvious strategy then, and many people thought that mobiles would become wallets, and many people thought that transactional opportunities would drive the mobile operators to develop a central role in the future of payments. What's more, many people (well, me) thought that the role of the mobile in the future of payments would be so disruptive as to have an impact not just on those payments but on the future of money.
Having just seen the most recent figures from M-PESA in Kenya -- which show 4.33m net additions in the last financial year and 28,000 agents -- this prediction seems accurate. This sharpens the focus of the operators, I think. Www.fsa.gov.uk/pubs/international/approach_emoney.pdf. Electronic Money Regulations. The regulation of electronic money has changed. The second Electronic Money Directive (2EMD), which aims to encourage the growth of the electronic money market, was implemented in the UK on 30 April 2011 through the Electronic Money Regulations 2011 The E-money Approach Document, which provides more detailed information for electronic money issuers, and application forms are now available.
Here, we give an overview of the new regime. Electronic money (e–money) is electronically (including magnetically) stored monetary value, represented by a claim on the issuer, which is issued on receipt of funds for the purpose of making payment transactions, and which is accepted by a person other than the electronic money issuer. The Electronic Money Regulations (EMRs) affect electronic money issuers and their customers. The issuance of e-money has been regulated since 2002. You should access the application forms. For more information, see the: Electronic Money, or E-Money, and Digital Cash.