Contopronto had been awarded a licence under the EC's electronic money directive. Follow to the
Dutch Retail Payments blog.
Follows is an additional story that indicates this is the first ever for mobile phones:
For those that didn't follow the decade long debate (!) the existence of the EC electronic money directive has its roots in the Bundesbank's paranoia at non-banks competing against the banks. They succeeded in destroying the electronic money lead that the Europeans had, by constraining it to large players who were uninterested in cutting consumer's costs (read: banks); only now are new independent operators able to use the advantage of the open mobile platform to be able to regain the lost ground.
Meanwhile, as I predicted in my old paper , the Americans continue to lead in eMoney, partly due to their deliberate slowness in regulating something they did not and still do not understand.
Here's the additional story:
Contopronto wins e-money licence
06 January 2004 - The first-ever European e-money licence allowing for payments and money transfers to any bank, credit card, business or individual through mobile phones has been granted to Norwegian-based virtual bank Contopronto.
Issued by the Norwegian Royal Ministry of Finance, the licence allows for the international expansion of Contopronto's mobile-based payment system, which was first rolled out to Norwegian businesses and personal users last year.
In Norway, merchants such as McDonald's, Peppe's Pizza, and the country's number one loyalty programme Trumf have participated in the one-year pilot. Contopronto users dining at McDonald's or Peppe's, for example, text the billing code for their meal into their mobile to transfer payments to the restaurant's account.
Carrier-independent, the system has also been adopted for paying salaries direct to mobiles and online gambling, and will soon be made available in taxis in 25 cities in Norway. Contopronto currently claims 10,000 active users in its home territory.
The company recently opened its first office abroad in London and is in discussion with Norwegian and UK airlines about the possibility of using the system for the sale and delivery of flight tickets.
The new e-money licence will open up the application for international money transfers says Contopronto CEO Morten Hofstad.
"Contopronto users only send a text message and within a matter of seconds, rather than days, the transaction is completed for a fraction of the cost of a traditional funds transfer," he says. "Funds can be sent in any currency. For example a person in Denmark can send either kroners, pounds, euros or other currencies to someone in London."
Funds to a maximum value of EUR1250 can be sent to anyone, even if they are not Contopronto members, says Hofstad. Once a payment is accepted an account will be automatically opened.
http://www.finextra.com/fullstory.asp?id=10880
Posted by iang at January 13, 2004 12:02 PM | TrackBack