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Nick,

Thank you, very much appreciate the feedback. I find it really interesting when a technology starts to evolve and as it does so, starts to change consumer behaviour. I suspect there will be more much more change to come with consumer payments.

Best wishes,

Alex

Hi Graham, it's a very good point and one that's often dismissed by start-up culture. Incumbency in a regulated environment is a powerful position and it makes disruption difficult, although not impossible. Obviously if the regulator starts supporting new entrants (as now in the UK), then incumbency becomes less of an advantage. Still, it's noticable that in the UK the most successful non-bank entrant to financial services is Tesco Bank, which is backed by a retailer using retail principles (...but no branches).

I'd agree with the comment about partnerships.  The TELCO industry (in broad terms) isn't as developed as parts of the banking industry at partnering, creating shared service bureaus and other ways of chopping up the value chain. Compared to how banks handle all the actors in payments (processors, acquirers, networks, etc...) and do so at scale and volume across multiple entities, the mobile operators just haven't had that experience.