JAMAICAN-BASED transaction processing company Advanced Integrated Systems (AIS) has partnered with US-based mobile payments MOBIbucks to deliver a mobile money platform in Jamaica and the Caribbean.

By AIS CEO Doug Halsall’s reckoning, the platform can significantly address the needs of the unbanked — individuals who don’t have or can’t get bank accounts — while providing a channel for making transactions that are otherwise too expensive to conduct more practical.

Individuals in Jamaica may not be able to meet some of the basic requirements of know your customer (KYC) rules, such as having proof of address or even national identification, and even then may shy away from the banks for various other reasons, such as perceived high charges.

MOBIbucks’s payment system is a cashless and cardless solution that enables any consumer with any cellphone to have a mobile wallet, allowing them to make everyday purchases safely and securely using only their phone number and PIN.

Halsall said that mobile phone users would send an SMS (text message) to get a temporary PIN (which can be changed) and an account number unique to the phone number. After the account is established, the account holder can use ATMs and point of sale machines to conduct transactions by simply punching in the required account numbers and passwords without the phone.

“The system will operate, with the permission of the banks, on the merchant networks and, again with the permission of the banks, the ATMs,” Halsall told the Business Observer. “The banks are very enthusiastic.”

What’s more, Halsall foresees the application will make certain transactions feasible. For example, individual health insurance is not popular due to the relative high costs associated with collecting small premiums. The mobile wallet, which wouldn’t attract a minimum charge but rather a small percentage of the payment, would make it practical.

Halsall identified parking meters, which could be topped up at any point of sale (once the platform is integrated in the merchant network), and money transfers as other potential transaction types that would become feasible and/or less expensive to make.

The partnership hopes to roll out the platform in the Caribbean within the next 12 months, starting in Jamaica, but the companies may have to wait given that the Bank of Jamaica (BOJ) — the regulator of the insitutions, such as commercial banks, that would use the platform for which AIS/MOBIbucks would act as technology providers — has not released the policy that would govern mobile money.

Halsall said there is no clear indication as to when the policy would be ready, while the Business Observer was unable to get a timetable from the BOJ up to press time.

However, MOBIbucks said that its “platform is robust and feature rich and has been deployed in other regions, therefore, it can be configured to meet all requirements that the regulator is likely to require/specify, when the policy governing Mobile Money is released by the BOJ”.

“These may include but are not limited to interoperability, limits to number of transactions per day, week, month, etc, upper limits to account balances, money laundering detection, compatibility to existing Merchant Networks, ATMs, etc,” said MOBIbucks in response via e-mail to written queries from the Business Observer.