- Ericsson Money available across seven European countries
- Connected mobile money services that make sending, receiving and spending money on mobile phones easy and instant
- Money transfers are now more like mobile communication, enabling convenient, instant and safe access for families, social sharers, cash-only consumers and non-domestic workers
- Plans to broaden availability of Ericsson Money and connect with other similar services globally
Today, Ericsson (NASDAQ:ERIC) Money Services launches the first of a number of new mobile money services, Ericsson Money, across seven European countries. Mobile phone users in the UK, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Poland and Sweden can sign up from today at www.ericssonmoney.com to send and receive money to and from friends and family and withdraw cash. This is the first step toward bringing a full suite of convenient, cost-efficient, secure and instant mobile financial services to consumers globally.
As money transfers become more like mobile communication, our mobile phones will become central to not only our social lives, but also our financial lives. After easily creating a safe and secure mobile wallet online, users will be able access their money safely from the Ericsson Money network through their phones.
Ericsson Money today enables people to send and receive money instantly and withdraw cash - such as parents to their children at university or on their travels using the handset as the access point to their personal mobile wallet. Transferring money to family and friends who are just around the corner, at a café, or even in a different country will now be as quick and easy as sending a text message. For consumers, the services will offer greater freedom of choice, access to money and a faster and more convenient way to share money with friends and family. People who can benefit immediately include:
- Families: parents can send money to their children away at university, on holiday or on a gap year
- Social sharers: people can conveniently share the cost of a meal, settle small debts and transfer money between friends and family
- Cash-only consumers: consumers used to transacting only with cash can take a first step into banking
- Non-domestic workers: overseas workers can send money home to their families without having to use postal or personal cash transfers, which are often time-intensive.
Ericsson Money Services plans to make Ericsson Money available to the rest of Europe soon. In the near future consumers will be able to connect with other similar services globally (via Ericsson Money Interconnect), making sending money as quick, easy and natural as sending a text message a reality for people around the world.
Before too long, it will be possible to make secure bill payments, shop online and pay in retail stores instantly through Ericsson.
Semir Mahjoub, Ericsson Vice President and President of Ericsson Money Services, says: “Ever since mobile phones went mainstream they have become the backbone of our social lives. We text, we tweet, we instant message, we connect via social networks for millions of hours per month. For many people today, accessing information and services on the mobile is as instinctive as taking the next breath.”
“To Ericsson, it’s logical that as connected consumers in every other part of our lives we should have the same freedom of choice, access and availability in our financial lives. Simply having a friend’s phone number, irrespective of where he or she is in the world, will open up access to financial services and mobile money in a new way. It’s an exciting time for a new industry and we are really looking forward to accelerating the pace at which individuals around the world can benefit from globally connected money services in their everyday lives by making money transfer more like mobile communication,” Mahjoub concludes.
About Ericsson Money Services AB
Ericsson Money Services is a wholly owned subsidiary of the Ericsson mother company Telefonaktiebolaget LM Ericsson. Ericsson Money Services provides business-to-consumer mobile wallet services (Ericsson Money), and a business-to-business interconnection network (Ericsson Money Interconnect) enabling different mobile wallet services to work together, cross-system, cross-currency, cross-border.
The past decade’s rapid spread of mobile phones across the world has made possible new, more cost-effective, more convenient and more secure ways of providing financial services to consumers – such as payments and person-to-person money transfers. A new ecosystem is emerging in the convergence of mobile and financial services. Mobile payments and person-to-person money transfers are forecasted to become some of the most-used mobile applications in many countries in the next two or three years. Mobile money will be a key driver for person-to-machine and machine-to-machine connections by 2020, when Ericsson envisions a world with more than 50 billion connected devices. Ericsson has a significant role to play as these trends are realized.
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Ericsson is the world’s leading provider of technology and services to telecom operators. Ericsson is the leader in 2G, 3G and 4G mobile technologies, and provides support for networks with over 2 billion subscribers and has the leading position in managed services. The company’s portfolio comprises mobile and fixed network infrastructure, telecom services, software, broadband and multimedia solutions for operators, enterprises and the media industry. The Sony Ericsson and ST-Ericsson joint ventures provide consumers with feature-rich personal mobile devices. Ericsson is advancing its vision of being the “prime driver in an all-communicating world” through innovation, technology, and sustainable business solutions. Working in 180 countries, more than 90,000 employees generated revenue of SEK 203.3 billion (USD 28.2 billion) in 2010. Founded in 1876 with the headquarters in Stockholm, Sweden, Ericsson is listed on NASDAQ OMX, Stockholm and NASDAQ New York.
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