Smart Money was implemented in the Philippines through collaboration with 1st eBank and MasterCard. The Smart Money wallet card, incorporated in the mobile SIM, enables subscribers to make payments at fast food restaurants, arcades, movie theaters, school cafeterias that have electronic data capture (EDC) payment terminals. It is designed principally for establishments that do not customarily accept credit cards. In the Philippines, over 15,000 establishments accept Smart Money.

The system, which will be rolled out internationally to other operators, also provides transactional capabilities, and the ability to connect securely to any database. Smart’s subscribers can use their mobile phone for banking and payments, for prepaid top-ups, for transfers to the Smart Money wallet card as well as for wallet-to-wallet transfers and a host of non-banking and non-financial services.

The technical and implementation aspects are supported by SmartTrust using its delivery platform, wireless Internet gateway and wireless Internet browser.

Ian Wilson, senior operations advisor of Smart Money, says: “We have found our subscribers can access and use value-added SMS services with much greater ease than ever before. The upshot is that usage rates for Smart Money’s transactional capabilities are surging. Operators launching the more sophisticated GSM services such as mobile payments are well positioned both to reduce churn and open up additional revenue resources for themselves."