Looks
like the BOJ (Bank of Jamaica) like my sob story about JCUES (Jamaica Credit Union e-Payment Services). Why do I say this?
Well, the BOJ has now decided on Tuesday July 16th 2013 to approve
the JCCUL (Jamaica Cooperative Credit Union League) and Mozido Jamaica License
for their Mobile Money Platform, making them the first to be so Licensed as
stated in the article “JCUES Gets Green Light - First PrivateMobile-Money
Licence Granted By Central Bank”, published Friday
July 26, 2013, The Jamaica
Gleaner.
Now JCCUL will become the first Credit Union or Bank to
introduce Mobile Money in Jamaica and Mozido Jamaica can get Jamaica as their
Guinea Pig to launch into Latin America.
So it’s set. SVL (Supreme Ventures Limited) is interested
albeit they haven’t applied to be a Retail Payment Service Providers for any Mobile
Money startup as stated in “SVL Boss Sees Growth Prospects In E-Wallets”, Published Friday July 26, 2013, The Jamaica
Gleaner .
They may soon join GraceKennedy who are definitely interested
as noted in “GK goes after Mobile Money”, published
Wednesday, May 22, 2013 BY SHAMILLE SCOTT Business
reporter, The
Jamaica Observer.
SVL could use it to supercharge smartphone Gaming and
Gambling as described in my blog article entitled “Supreme Ventures Limited and the JA$232.2 million
Super Lotto Winner - Pointer Sister's Automatic”.
And already some new younger entrepreneurs in the guise of
co-founders Jason Scott, Kevin Leyow, and Jonathan Cooper have started Blaze
Payment to do pretty much the same thing as reported in “Blaze trio aims to revolutionise the way you pay”, published Sunday, July 28, 2013 BY SHAMILLE
SCOTT Business reporter, The
Jamaica Observer.
It’s more like a cross between CreditU and StreetFlex being
used to pay for goods than a real Mobile Money Platform with dedicated
hardware, Retail Payment Service Providers and Agents. Still it’ll be great for
paying for Tickets at parties, another area of business this fledgling startup
can target aside from just Usain Bolt’s Tracks and Records.
But back to JCCUL’s JCUES!
The License makes JCUES the first Mobile Money Provider under
BOJ’s new Electronic Retail Payment Services Guidelines. This is approximately
one (1) year and four (4) months after JCCUL originally attempted to launch
JCUES as faithfully recorded and explained in my blog article entitled “JCCUL JCUES is put on hold by the BOJ - ePayment setback
means Mozido has been Bewitched” and it has been quite
an adventure for them. Now they have been approved, they can definitely say
they are the first to offer Mobile Money Service in Jamaica.
As mentioned in that original article, they’ll be providing a
Service that basically allows you to receive Remittances and then spend it
using your feature phone or smartphone as well as send small amounts via SMS to
someone else. Very similar to the same Mobile Money Services in Africa, Mozido
Jamaica's technology is very similar.
Based on the new Guidelines set by the BOJ which had
officially taken effect on Monday April 1st 2013 as explained in my blog article entitled “BOJ to regulate and approve Mobile Money Industry in
Jamaica - JCCUL JCUES is the Man of Steel as GraceKennedy joins The Last Stand
for a Cashless Society” and “BOJ stalling on Mobile Money Regulations as new
entrants appear - Herald for the Cashless Society as Smartphones and Mobile Money
are The Perfect Storm and Curse of Chucky” you’ll receive your remittances via the Credit Union and or in your
Credit Union Account linked to a JCUES Account.
You can then opt to withdraw the Money via your Credit union Account
or JCUES Account at a Retail Payment Service Providers or spend it via using Mobile Money by having
one of the following:
1. A JCUES NFC (Near Field Communication) Sticker placed on your
feature phone
2. NFC enabled Smartphone with a JCUES App you download and
install to enable the Service
3. Feature phone or smartphone with Bluetooth, no App Required
4. Camera phone with QR Code Reader similar to as described in
my blog article entitled “QR Codes and Shopping in South Korea - My Science
Project for A Virtual Supermarket” to
receive Money
NOTE: In the following examples though, for simplicity’s sake, I’ll
use the example of a smartphone with NFC reader and JCUES App or Feature phone
with JCUES NFC Sticker.
At this point it becomes self Explanatory: wherever there is
an NFC reader or another smartphone with a JCUES Account and NFC Reader
capability, you can spend Money with them. You can also withdraw Cash from a
Retail Payment Service Providers by simply using your phone to verify your Account
number and the Agent will pay you the Money you requested.
Very similar to withdrawing Money from ScotiaBank or JNBS
(Jamaica National Building Society), both of whom have eliminated the need to
carry a Bank Book to the Bank to withdraw Cash as explained in my blog article entitled “JNBS Introduces Swipe and Go, eliminating Bank Books -
Secret of Wings for a Cashless Society in Jamaica”.
Deposits via a Retail Payment Service Providers work the same
way too using your feature phone or Smartphone. But it’s sending Money across
the island where the convenience comes in. I’m sure many a time, your
confronted with a situation where you are asked to send someone Money and that
person is on the other side of Jamaica, has no Bank Account and worse it’s on
a Saturday or Sunday. This can be a case where you as a parent in the country
decide to send your child Money at University in Kingston or you met a girl on
Facebook and you are trying to send her Money so she can visit you.
Several creative options exist:
1. Use Mobile or Internet Banking on your Blackberry or
Smartphone to transfer them Money to someone you know who has a Bank Account
2. Going to an ATM (Automated Teller Machine) and depositing the
Money via placing it in an Envelope
3. Sending a Money order via your Remittance Service, which
means the person has to go to a Remittance Service Provider who may/may not be
open
So add Mobile Money Service to that list. Here’s how it would
work:
1. You’d send a SMS (Short Messaging Service) text composed
using special USSD (Unstructured Supplementary Service) codes that may be
similar to those used in Digicel CreditU to a pre-assigned Gateway number for
JCUES e.g. 4447777
2. The sender then receives a confirmation text from the JCUES
Gateway Number with a special unique transaction code and confirmation that the
Money has been sent
3. The recipient then receives an SMS with a confirmation text
from the JCUES Gateway Number with a special unique transaction code and
confirmation that they have received Money from the sender
4. The recipient then takes the feature phone with the code or
write off the code and carry your GOJ ID to a JCUES Retail Payment Service
Providers and you’re given the Cash
5. If you have your feature phone and it has a JCUES NFC sticker
or a smartphone with the JCUES NFC App and is NFC capable, you can use it to
withdraw the Money by swiping it at the Retail Payment Service Providers NFC
Reader and get Cash
6. If JCUES is enabled on an ATM via Multilink and you have your
feature phone and it has a NFC sticker or a smartphone with the NFC App and is
NFC capable, you can use it to withdraw the Money by swiping it at the ATM’s
NFC Reader and get Cash
The Mobile Money System work thanks to the
ubiquity of cell phones and takes advantage of certain features they may have,
that being Bluetooth, Camera, NFC Reader or simply SMS. It then compares the
information captured to the Database on the Servers hosting JCUES Platform
being run by Mozido Jamaica.
It updates this information in a Bank Account created
temporarily for the Recipient in the JCUES Database by the JCUES Platform during
the transaction. The sender’s Bank Account or Remittance JCUES Account, which
are registered to either the BOJ or a local Commercial Bank is accessed and
funds debited and the information is updated in the JCUES Database. This takes
mere seconds and the robust JCUES Servers are designed to handles thousands of
Transactions every minute error free, another Technical Specification
Requirement by the BOJ.
The unique code generated to be used by the Sender and
recipient to make each Transaction traceable back to the Bank or Credit
Union when sending or receiving Money, a key requirement of the BOJ. Thus all
transactions originate and terminate in a Bank Account of some sort, making the
person, usually an unBanked Remittance recipient, become a part of the Banked.
The convenience of the JCUES Mobile Money System means that
you can now send Money to anyone with a feature phone that can receive SMS, MMS
or even email as described in my Geezam blog article entitled “How to send and receive email via SMS from your LIME
or Digicel Feature phone”.
The only qualm is the issue of SIM Card hacking as exposed by
Dr. Karsten Nohl as explained in my blog article
entitled “Dr. Karsten Nohl reveals GSM Phones' SIM Cards can be
hacked via a Text Message - Elysium of Jamaica’s nascent Mobile Money Banking
and Cashless Society”, which, really,
is more of a Telecoms issues than a Banking one.
At this point I’m awaiting the first tranche of ads in
traditional Media as well as Social Media
explaining how JCUEs Services works as well as similar from the other
debutantes, who are yet to be Licenses. In the end, JCUES Mobile Money Wolverine
(2013) marks the Kick-Ass
2 (2013) beginning of a Cashless
Society.
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