JAMAICA can choose a mobile phone-based financial services delivery system which targets those persons who currently do not have easy access to the established banking network.

Carl Rosenquist, a Chartered Information Technology Professional with the British Computer Society, was one of several industry experts trumpeting the development during the Mobile Financial Services Conference at the Terra Nova All Suites Hotel in Kingston in December, which aimed to develop a shared vision for establishing the most effective approach for the delivery of payments using mobile devices.

“What drives the choice of mobile payment systems architectures is the potential customer base,” Rosenquist said, adding that it is possible to extend services, such as interbank transactions, domestic, as well as international remittance, for those beyond the existing customer base of the country’s banks.

Finance Minister Audley Shaw said that a key pillar to sustainable development in any country is the expansion of access to financial services.

“For Jamaica, the primary goal is to increase the delivery of financial services for the unbanked,” he declared at the conference.

Mobile financial services use wireless handheld devices, such as mobile phones, to pay bills, do money transfers and traditional banking, as well as to execute other transactions.

Several banks now provide banking services using mobile devices as alternative delivery channels. Shaw pointed out that the country’s high level of cellular service penetration presents, “a tremendous opportunity to reach citizens in communities in the inner city and deep rural Jamaica.”

Edmundo Jenez, general manager of JETS Limited, also pointed out that several institutions could provide mobile financial services, but individually, they face higher costs to reach their intended market. He said a shared common platform for the delivery of mobile services would allow more financial service providers to participate in the system and keep the connection costs to subscribers very low.

Jamaica already has examples of a shared network such as its Multilink network operated by JETS, which grew from 95 banking machines serving 12,956 users in June of 1997, to some 554 machines serving more than 380,000 users monthly, as recorded in November 2010, Jenez asserted.

Other presenters highlighted areas, such as the establishment of a regulatory framework, the research agenda and strategies for implementation.

The one-day conference was conducted by Solutions for Society, a Think Tank in the Tropical Medicine Research Institute (TMRI), and the Mona School of Business (MSB), at The University of the West Indies (UWI), in association with USAID Jamaica and the Inter-American Development Bank (IADB).

Dr Maurice McNaughton, director of the Centre of Excellence of the MSB, said a guide is now being developed to assist policymakers to craft a framework for the introduction of mobile financial services in the island.