Regulation
Regulation continues to be the most complicated issue for mobile operators wanting to be involved in mobile money. For this reason, the GSMA MMT team has a dedicated regulatory expert to work with regulators on the requirements for mobile money and to help mobile operators navigate through the complex regulatory environment.
In order to provide a starting point for mobile operators to understand the regulatory environment, the GSMA provides information on the following topics:
- Understanding financial regulation and how it works
- What is the regulatory situation in my country?
- Regulatory impact on business model choice
- What is a mobile wallet from a regulatory perspective?
- How to prepare for discussions with the regulator (for MMT Working Group members only)
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Disclaimer The purpose of this section is to provide basic general background information on the key regulatory concepts and provide a starting point for the mobile operator to understand how to begin talks with their financial regulator to shape future regulation affecting MMT services. It is not intended to replace or in any other way substitute individual legal or regulatory advice. Any country specific data provided in the regulatory report has been collected in desk-based research without contacting the financial regulators. It may be in some cases incomplete, inaccurate or out of date. However, it provides a good starting point for mobile operators to understand their national regulatory regime. Both the detailed country-specific regulatory analysis and the need to establish a relationship with the relevant individual national financial regulator remains the responsibility of the mobile operators in each country. A key limitation to the information provided here are the considerable geographic differences and compliance requirements between different countries, which could not be addressed. Another limitation is the necessarily generic nature of the section. It would not be possible to cover the detailed variations of the regulatory issues of each country. In addition, two mobile operators in the same country may face different regulatory issues because the regulatory issues depend on the business model chosen. The GSMA MMT project focuses mainly on the business model whereby the mobile operator enters into a partnership with global financial institutions or money remittance providers in order to keep regulatory issues minimal. However, this regulatory section is aimed at providing a structured approach to deal with a wider range of regulatory issues independent of the business model. |
Strategic Partners
The strategic partners for the regulatory work stream of the Mobile Money Transfer programme are the Department for International Development in the UK (DFID), one of the donor agencies pioneering the promotion of international remittances as a positive force for economic development in developing countries and the Consultative Group for Assisting the Poor (CGAP), which has a strong program promoting 'branchless banking' (provision of financial services to poor people outside licensed bank premises) through the use of new technology (including mobile phones).
