Nokia is to enter the mobile banking market - a few months after it took a stake in mobile payments vendor, Obopay. Nokia is also building a wide network of "Nokia Money" agents, where consumers can deposit money in or withdraw cash from their accounts.

"We believe mobile financial services offer a market opportunity with long term growth potential. In many countries, mobile phone ownership significantly exceeds bank account usage, suggesting that many mobile phone users have very limited or no access to basic financial services. With more than 4 billion mobile phone users and only 1.6 billion bank accounts, global demand for access to financial services presents a strong opportunity to combine mobile devices with simple but powerful financial services such as Nokia Money", said Mary McDowell, EVP and Chief Development Officer, Nokia.

The service is based on Obopay's mobile payment platform, with newly developed mobile elements. Nokia says that it intends the service to be open and interoperable with other payment services as well.

"Obopay shares Nokia's vision for bringing mobile financial services to millions of people worldwide. We're excited that Nokia has chosen Obopay's platform. Nokia's leading market position, strong brand recognition and global distribution channel, using the Obopay platform with uniquely developed mobile elements, means the Nokia Money service is well positioned to bring the next generation of mobile payment services to the world," said Carol Realini, Founder and CEO of Obopay.

The Nokia Money service will be shown for the first time at Nokia World in September, and it is planned to be rolled out gradually to selected markets, beginning in early 2010.

Source : cellular-news