I had the pleasure of participating at MMT-08. Doubtless, it was a great learning experience with the likes of CEOs of mPesa and Obopay sharing their insights – not to forget the local players like Etisalat and NBAD.

Here are the details along with the message from Steve Clarke on MMT-09

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The total value of international mobile p2p payments is expected to reach $202 billion by 2015*. With the likes of Orange, Zain, Orascom, Globe, Smart, Etisalat, Vodafone, MTN and Safaricom all at advanced stages of MMT programme deployment, you need to finalise your mobile money strategy so as not to be left behind.

Foreign workers in the UAE send home more than $10 billion (Dh36.7bn) every year – making the country the second highest fund remittance performer in the GCC, said global trade association Money Transfer International (MTI).

And the UAE is the third largest sender of remittances worldwide. MTI says the region has the potential to drive growth in the sector though the global economy is slowing down.

“The GCC is one of the top five performers in the global remittance industry, which was worth $550bn in 2008,” said MTI’s Regional Director, Premal Patel. He said recent estimates from the International Monetary Fund indicated that the remittance volume in the UAE would lead the increase and would rise by five per cent this year.

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Armchair comfort, avoiding traffic jams, readily available status updates…. whatever be the reasons… online bill payment is continually increasing and is projected to further increasing substantially.

Click Here to view interesting insights on the topic which also states that is not just baby boomers who engage in online bill payments but also a large percentage of those who are above 45 years of age.

Prosum fzc is working towards being an aggregator of bill payments in UAE – the first-ever non-government, non-bank initiative of its kind in UAE. The added benefit of paying directly through one’s bank’s accounts is expected to further increase acceptance and usage of online bill payments in United Arab Emirates.

Do your company store or even process credit card data – whether for online payments or even at physical locations?

If so, you would do well to get certified, or at the very least conform, to PCI DSS.

PCI DSS stands for Payment Cards Industry Data Security Standards. Primarily, it readily provides you the check-list for all the related best practices such as what data to store, where to store and how to store. It also provides the physical security levels required at the hosting center. What should also matter to the merchant is that, once certified, you come under the “Safe Harbor” which protects from any subsequent financial or repudiation risk.

U.S. online shoppers hit with ‘foreign’ fee reads an article which brings to our attention the fact that credit card owners could now be subjected to a 2 percent additional charge on each transaction conducted with a foreign company — even if the customer never leaves the U.S. and even if the transaction is completed in U.S. dollars.

Get more details here.

There are some who still vow never to make a purchase online. And there are others who confirm that online payment facility for internet shopping is the best thing that has ever happened.

Which group do you belong to?

Read on to see it from the eyes of Suzanne Fenton, Staff Reporter at Gulf News

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Dubai: Per capita online shopping in the UAE reached $1,193 (Dh4,378) in the fourth quarter of 2008, the highest in the Asia/Pacific, Middle East and Africa region, according to the latest MasterCard survey.

Pay Salik Fee Through Mobile Phones
Has re-loading your salik tag become a time consuming and frustrating experience for you?

Not any more. Welcome to the world of mobile pay.

From now, motorists can recharge their Salik accounts directly through mobile phones . Dubai eGovernment has launched mPay, a mobile payment service. Registration for the mPay service is free and clients just have to sign up on mPay’s web portal once.