Philippines Telco Rolls Out e-Cash Cards
Philippine telecom carrier, Smart Communications, has joined with MasterCard and First-e Bank, to roll out an e-cash card system, Smart Money, to support payments via cell phone. Users of the Smart e-cash card receive a SIM card and a separate Smart Money card, to serve as the holder's physical 'electronic MasterCard'. The Bank of the Philippine Islands also launched an e-cash system this week, BPI Express Cash, which works only in the real world.Although Smart Money was designed primarily for wireless payments, it has the edge on BPI Express Cash in supporting both wireless and real world payments. The card is accepted in over 13,000 merchant locations, and Smart plans to add a further 25,000 stores to this base by early 2001. First-e Bank Asia will be the first to offer the service, with other local banks, including I-bank, EastWest Bank, MetroBank, Equitable PCI and Global Bank, following suit.
Smart PCS said the move resulted from the need to connect subscribers to banks and retail establishments, whether payments were real or virtual. Smart Money's SMS function handles both wireless and banking transactions, while physical retailers with an electronic MasterCard terminal, can accept Smart Money payments. Antonio Bala, the firm's mCommerce manager, said payments would be simplified in that people no longer had to "carry around wads of money". Related Links
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