Nokia Money will enable consumers to send money to another person by using the persons mobile phone number, as well as to pay merchants for goods and services, pay their utility bills or top up their prepaid SIM cards. The services can be accessed on a 24-hour basis. Nokia is currently working on building a network of Nokia Money agents, where consumers can deposit money in or withdraw cash from their accounts.
The Nokia Money service is set to be operated in cooperation with Obopay, a global mobile payment services developer in which Nokia invested earlier in 2009. The service is based on Obopays mobile payment platform and also includes newly developed mobile elements.
Nokia representatives have indicated that the company’s interest in becoming a mobile services provider is mainly due to the fact that mobile financial services constitute a market opportunity with long-term growth potential. “With over 4 billion mobile phone users and only 1.6 billion bank accounts at global level, demand for access to financial services presents a strong opportunity to combine mobile devices with simple but powerful financial services such as Nokia Money, said Mary McDowell, Nokia’s Chief Development Officer.
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