This paper describes, explores and assesses a variety of strategic options for banks and financial institutions relative to mobile wallet technology. It contends that the number, strength and diversity of stakeholders present in the mobile wallet ecosystem requires banks to adopt a very different approach from that which they have become accustomed to. It asserts that the sooner banks acknowledge that their once-exclusive relationships with customers are under threat, the faster they can take steps to adapt their operations and equip themselves with the knowledge and services they need to defend their ground against the competition.
The paper explains how the mobile wallet will transform the consumer’s shopping experience and describes the new role that banks and financial institutions can play in its delivery. It acknowledges the complexity of the mobile wallet ecosystem and underscores the need for co-opetition between stakeholders, before outlining a series of recommendations intended to aid banks in their efforts to establish optimal ecosystem positioning. The paper continues to describe three groups of services that are expected to drive mobile wallet adoption (payments, own value added services, and value added services from third parties) and maps these against three models for wallet ownership (own wallet, joint venture wallet and third party wallet), deriving from this exercise five strategic go-to-market options which are then explored and assessed.
The paper concludes that the strength of each strategic option is dependent on a variety of factors influencing the bank or financial institution in question, and contends that each has validity when it is matched appropriately to the bank’s individual circumstances.
Mobey Forum defines a mobile wallet as: A Mobile Wallet is functionality on a mobile device that can securely interact with digitized valuables.
