In the UK they are building a Green Bank - banking by mobile is the closest thing to green banking I can think off.
While the idea of replacing your wallet with a mobile phone has yet to be adopted by mainstream America, Juniper Research predicts that the overall remote mobile payment market in North America will grow ten-fold from $5.3 billion in 2008 to $54.9 billion in 2013. Gartner Research also claims mobile payments will be one of the top 10 consumer mobile applications for 2012 .
What does this all mean? For starters - carrying a wallet will soon be a thing of the past.
In countries like Japan, consumers are already beginning to embrace mobile payments, replacing the need for cash, checks and plastic in some instances. There, residents are able to purchase everything from train tickets to groceries, clothes and other merchandise by simply waving their phones over an electronic reader or by sending an SMS message containing the dollar amount to a pre-specified short code.
There are some challenges with current mobile payment technologies, however, and regulators in many markets are now piling in to investigate its impact on consumer costs, security, fraud, and money laundering.
The idea of making mobile payments safe and secure is something many companies have been exploring during the past several years. It's certainly one of the key areas any company (or consumer for that matter) should be focusing on, particularly when it comes to their dollars being routed wirelessly.
What are your thoughts? Is mobile commerce green?
Feel free to contact me directly to discuss further:
Chris Brassington
CEO at Starfish Consultants
http://www.starfish-consultants.com