Does mobile money make the world go round? Not yet, according to Tim Green, chair of the final session of Mini Heroes, hosted by Helen Keegan at Mozillas Covent Garden offices. “It is still disparate, difficult to navigate and unproven,” Tim said as he introduced the panel.

Weve come a long way, from cash to card to Mintchips – the first national attempt at a digital currency, launched as a competition by the Canadian government for technologists. Mobile money is a fascinating growth area for the mobile industry. But who wins?

On the panel were Martin Harris, SVP at Bango; Matthew Dicks, head of marketing for Blue Via; John Maynard from m-Pesa; and former PayPaller and mobile payments specialist Roy Vella, offering their thoughts on everything from mobile wallets to the future of NFC, operators to credit card companies.

“Mobile connectivity exceeds the availability of electricity and safe drinking water,” said Vella. “And it is the emerging markets that can take the lead – they dont have incumbents holding things up.”

m-Pesa

John Maynard spoke about the launch of mobile payment system m-Pesa in Kenya, the most developed system of its type in the developing world: “It wasnt a perfect storm, more an alignment of the stars.” Although it wasnt the first use of such an idea – similar schemes were tried in the Philippines and Korea before that – m-Pesa took off far more quickly.

Even Tanzania, where m-Pesa was headed next, presented far more problems – not least that the competition had caught up. In India, national regulators and incumbents werent happy. They are now looking at value-added services, including free life insurance policies for frequent users and offering financial services.

But what about in developed markets? 

Teething problems

It was a panel debate, but Vella stole the show. “Mobile is multi-local,” he said, “culture matters a huge amount. But the consumer will do what works, thats why Starbucks has the largest mobile money network in the States. NFC isnt fast enough for Oyster cards in the UK. Its a solution looking for a problem.”

“Merchants are going to take back control of the relationship with their customers – there is no reason they should be outsourcing with Visa and Mastercard any more. Visa charges retailers two or three per cent tax to get their money. Whereas with something like search, retailers are happy to hand over 30 per cent, because it brings a new customer.

“Why dont operators offer a business class services? A bit of service differentiation – they could guarantee you will never lose your signal. They have been pushed into the utility realm and I doubt they will succeed in value-added payments and wallets. Projects like Isis means they are competing with themselves. What they are each trying to do?”