It’s
been quite awhile since I’ve kept tabs with the development of JCCUL (Jamaica Cooperative Credit
Union League) and Mozido Jamaica Mobile Money partnership
called JCUES (Jamaica Credit Union
e-Payment Services). So for those of my fans reading this, this article is long
overdue.
So I’ve got some really interesting
news to report.
JCCUL has finally rebranded their
JCUES with a new name CONEC Mobile
Wallet at a Press Conference held at the CRU bar in Kingston on Wednesday
September 24th 2014 as stated in the article “Paymaster
now point of sale for credit union's mobile wallet”, published Friday,
September 26, 2014, The Jamaica
Observer.
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This comes a little over a year
since the BOJ (Bank of Jamaica) gave the JCCUL their Mobile Money License in
July 2013 as reported in my blog article entitled “JCCUL
get's approval from BOJ to launch their JCUES Mobile Money Platform - JCUES Mobile
Money Wolverine (2013) marks the Kick-Ass 2 (2013) beginning of a Cashless
Society”, making
them the first financial organization so licensed to operate as a Mobile Money
provider or Electronic Retail Payment Service Provider as per the BOJ.
Since then other competitors have
stepped up to the plate, but none have been as visible as JCCUL, albeit they
haven't place any advertisement on Television, resorting only to advertisements
within their Credit Union Branches or booths to hand out flyers, persons who I’ve
encountered at the MICO
University College.
So what new changes have the JCCUL
put in place with the rebranding of JCUES? And will these changes be convenient
enough to make more unbanked Jamaicans embrace the idea of having a Bank Account
as argued in my blog article entitled “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”?
JCUES now CONEC Mobile Money - Paymaster and Remittances
part of the JCCUL-Mozido Jamaica mix
In addition to the rebranding,
they've also made a partnership with Third-party Bill Payment Processor
Paymaster to top up their Mobile Money Accounts. The would basically be acting
as the Retail Payment Service Providers for the JCCUL's CONEC Mobile Wallet which is
called an Electronic Retail Payment Service as per the BOJ's regulations as
detailed 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”.
This means that JCCUL's customer can
now top up their CONEC Mobile
Wallet at any of Paymaster's twenty one (21) locations in addition to their
40 Credit Union Branches islandwide. Paymaster earns from this partnership on a
commission basis and the customer will not initially be charged to top up their
Accounts, albeit withdrawal may come with a withdrawal fee.
It also solves the problem of
withdrawal of live cash, as no ATM's currently have NFC (Near Field
Communication) Readers as explained in my blog article entitled “JCCUL
get's approval from BOJ to launch their JCUES Mobile Money Platform - JCUES Mobile
Money Wolverine (2013) marks the Kick-Ass 2 (2013) beginning of a Cashless
Society”.
But probably the most exciting News
is that the JCCUL's CONEC Mobile
Wallet has finally been granted the ability to do Remittance services on
behalf of Moneygram according to the Kavin Hewitt, CEO of JCCUL's technology
partner, Mozido Jamaica. CONEC
Mobile Wallet can verify and receive remittances from abroad as well as
give the customer the option to either deposit it in their CONEC Mobile Wallet or a Credit
Union Account.
Access to this US$2 billon
Remittance Market is the main reason why they'd formed the partnership with JCCUL
in the first place to introduce Mobile Money to Jamaica back in June 2011 when
news of the JCCUL and Mozido Jamaica came to light in my blog article entitled “Mozido Jamaica Limited and Mobile Payments - Plants
and Zombies say the Gods must be Crazy”.
Moneygram, which were preciously
doing business via NCB (National Commercial Bank) before NCB cutting ties with
them , possibly as they have plans in the pipeline to do their own Mobile Money
service as predicted in my blog article entitled “NCB
Under Pressure cuts ties with Remittance Agent MoneyGram - NCB using innovation
Edge to plan Mobile Money, Remittance and E-Commerce Triple Play Services by
September 2014”.
JCCUL 1,000,000 Customer target - Why CONEC Mobile Money
still not convenient enough to convince the unBanked
JCCUL has some pretty ambitious
plans for the growth of CONEC
Mobile Wallet:
1.
3000
customers use the service for Bill Payments and mobile phone top-up
2.
50,000
is their target customer base by the end of 2014
3.
1,000,000
Credit Union Members is their long term target
The fee charged for doing
transactions is also very interesting. Based on test transactions done using
the CONEC Mobile Wallet by
Caribbean Business Report:
1.
CONEC Mobile Wallet does Bill
Payments, mobile phone top-up and Remittances
2.
CONEC Mobile Wallet does Wallet to
Wallet and Wallet to Credit Union Account transactions
3.
JA$100
is the minimum amount in any transaction
4.
JA$10
transaction fee to transfer the minimum amount of $100
5.
JA$40
transaction fee to transfer $5,000
According to CEO of Paymaster Audrey
Marks the CONEC Mobile Wallet
services “signals a good shift in how more Jamaicans can access financial
services”. However, from a someone like myself whose used to using various
means of receiving and sending money via Bank Accounts, this isn't anywhere
near convenient.
Most Credit Unions do not open on a
Saturday or Sunday, making depositing or withdrawal of money a matter of using
a Debit Card, assuming that the particular Credit Union that’s a JCCUL member
issues Debit Cards for their Credit Union Account.
CONEC Mobile Money still inconvenient – You have to be a Credit
Union Member
That’s another problem to; having to
join a Credit Union; many Jamaicans merely have a Bank Account for work as they
are PAYE (Pay and You Earn) Workers who have their salaries sent to their Bank Accounts.
When payday comes which may be monthly or fortnightly, because of the fear of Banking
fees for repetitive withdrawals, many just withdraw all of their money all at
once, fearing that they’ll have no money over the weekend when they might need
cash.
This is an anecdotal observation I’ve
made based on observing the financial behavior of the residents of the Swallowfield
Community that’s sandwiched between Hold Hope Road, Arthur Wint Drive and North
Avenue as well as members of the community of Milk River, Clarendon, where I’m
originally from. Albeit anecdotal, I have observed this view of Bank Accounts
and their usage wherever I travel in Kingston and other parts of Jamaica.
This behavior is true across all
demographics and is a conclusion that can also be drawn for the CaPRI
(Caribbean Policy Research Institute) study requested by the CAC (Consumer
Affairs Commission) that has indicated that Banks have been profiting from
increasing Bank fees as stated in “Local Banking
Fees In Keeping With Western Trends - Study”, Published Monday April 7,
2014 10:06 am, The Jamaica Gleaner.
At one point in April 2014 was the
focus of proposal by the Minister of Finance, Dr. Peter Phillips, who use the CaPRI
study to propose
an ATM Withdrawal Tax which he later withdrew due to pressure from the Banking
sector as stated in my blog article entitled “Minister
of Finance, Dr. Peter Phillips withdraws ATM WithDrawal Tax - Wealthier Class
Big Stick quells the Perfect Storm for Mobile Money and Cashless Society”.
CONEC Mobile Money not smart – Smartphones and Blackberry’s
and no 24/7 Banking
Then there are the 21 locations for
Paymaster, many of which do not open on a Sunday either, making top-up and
withdrawals difficult. Finally, none of these locations are open between the
hours of 10pm to 8am at nights on weekdays and weekends, suggesting that
24-hour Banking isn't really a reality using CONEC Mobile Wallet as would be
the case if you had cash – preferably withdrawn when you got paid!
If someone sends your money via Moneygram
and you opt to receive it via CONEC
Mobile Wallet, you can only transfer it to another CONEC Mobile Wallet Account, buy
Credit for your cell phone or pay off Utility Bills from the comfort of your
home.
CONEC Mobile Wallet is yet to
reach the stage like Digicel's Tcho Tcho Mobile where you can waltz into a
convenience store in Port Au Prince in Haiti and buy groceries in the
supermarket, a service Telecom Provider Digicel may yet bring to Jamaica as
predicted in my blog article entitled “Digicel
to roll out Mobile Money Service in 2014 - Haiti Tcho Tcho Mobile Love is
Bringing the Boom with ScotiaBank heralds Cashless Society by 2015”.
But aside from the inability to have
access to your cash 24-7 in case of emergencies as well as being unable to
spend your cash using your mobile phone, there is also the fact that you cannot
use your CONEC Mobile Wallet at
any Multi-Link ATM (Automated Teller Machine) to withdraw Cash. In order to do
that, you'd either need a CONEC
Mobile Wallet Debit Card or the various Banks would have to upgrade their
ATM's with Bluetooth, QR Codes or NFC (Near Field Communication) Readers to
allow you to use your smartphone to verify your CONEC Mobile Wallet Account and
withdraw cash.
This by the way is assuming that CONEC Mobile Wallet utilizes Bluetooth,
QR Codes or NFC Readers, which would imply that it can only be used by customers
toting smartphones with Cameras, which are needed to read QR codes as pointed
out in my
blog article
entitled “QR
Codes and Shopping in South Korea - My Science Project for A Virtual
Supermarket”.
Albeit Smartphone usage is on the
rise, with no official statistics or studies to verify smartphone usage, this
is really more of a guess on the part of the JCCUL than a service being offered
based on a Proper Market Survey.
If it uses SMS as well, then
withdrawals are still possible with feature phones which many Jamaicans still
have, but special codes would have to be provided during the transaction by the
user as well as by the ATM in order to execute a transaction to deposit or
withdraw cash.
CONEC Mobile Money not connecting – More Merchants with
Bluetooth, NFC Readers needed
Add to this the fact that the JCCUL
hasn't signed on enough Merchants to even use their Bluetooth, QR Codes or NFC
Readers or do transactions via SMS Codes in a manner similar to Tcho Tcho
Mobile in Haiti as explained in my blog article entitled “Digicel
to roll out Mobile Money Service in 2014 - Haiti Tcho Tcho Mobile Love is
Bringing the Boom with ScotiaBank heralds Cashless Society by 2015”.
JCCUL still only have 3000 customers
using CONEC Mobile Wallet and possibly
very few Merchants who have signed up as Retail Payment Service Providers as
per the BOJ's Mobile Money Regulations 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”.
So it stands to reason that they had
a lot of bugs to iron out in order to make CONEC Mobile Wallet a true
replacement for Cash. Without access to your Cash 2/7 and the inability to do transactions
using any phone and not just Blackberry and smartphones that have Bluetooth, QR
Code Readers or NFC enabled, CONEC
Mobile Wallet has a long way to go before they can even reach a million
customers.
Here’s the Link:
CONEC
Mobile Wallet Twitter Feed: @ConecJa
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