U.S. Being Outflanked In Mobile Payments.

Publication: Electronic Payments Week

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COPYRIGHT 2005 Access Intelligence, LLC.

Last week, three Canadian companies said they were joining to create a cell phone infrastructure that over time would allow cell phones to be used as payments vehicles. Also last week, NoCoMo, the major Japanese cell phone operator, said it was not only launching a system that would allow cell phones to be used as contactless credit cards in that country, but that next year it would be launching its own credit card.

In the United States, meanwhile, every major cell phone carrier is already allowing their users to buy various digital products and attach them to their monthly bill. But no bank is known to be actively working in the space.

Cell phone companies have the potential to become quasi-banks, slowly adding more financial functions as the market demands, and slowly loosening the bonds between banks and their...

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