Monday, March 17, 2008

Mobile turns full circle

A few years ago when planning for the arrival of 3G I undertook a study of value added services which saw the idea that Vodafone might become a retail bank. Now we have Cat Keynes asking when will Nokia buy a Bank.

One of the issues when I did my work was regulation, A mobile phone network would not be able to invest in the infrastructure at the same time as holding customers money because of liquidity rules. (In today's market I have to ask if some Investment Banks comply with liquidity rules!)

Nokia becoming a bank is interesting it would give the likes of HSBC a run in terms of Brand. However the issue is that I do not think that they would want to be a Bank in the UK thanks to the fact that we spend more than we earn.

I am keen on mobile payments and Nokia have been keen to deploy NFC technologies. The issue has to be would Nokia want to be Bank rather than an enabler for all Banks. This is after all something that it has attempted to be in the past.

Thanks Mr Rockman for the heads up.

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