MNOs offer a range of mobile financial services (MFS) with portfolios looking decidedly different in various markets.
The most extensive pure mobile money solutions are most often found in developing markets where MNOs can play an outsized role in comparison to what is possible in developed markets. Yet exceptions exist and may very well propagate further in future.
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MNOs players like Tigo, Telcel, and Vivo Brazil have partnered with financial institutions in order to enhance their m-P2P/B solutions, streamlining the process of transferring and receiving money.
However, in the MFS M-P2P business model, telcos receive a nominal fee from the merchant in most of the transactions.
Additionally, in select countries, the user also pays a fee on transactions between different financial institutions. Tigo Money is the only provider in the region that extended its footprint with a branch-based operation. This reflected in higher transaction fees for consumers.
Despite these fees, Tigo Money has proven to be a successful MFS offer given its remittance feature that has a strong appeal in its country of presence.
Given a measure from the Mexican Central Bank that lowered mobile payment fees, Transfer is able to apply the lowest multibank M-P2P fee in the region, charging only $0.06/transaction.
