A small UK player has its eye on disrupting this situation, having created a product that enables anyone with a phone to send and receive money anywhere in the world.
Moni, says founder Laurence Aderemi, was born out of a personal frustration when having to send money home to his mother, who was critically ill.
The process, he says, was inconvenient and expensive.
Together with former Yahoo! Colleague Fernando Saturno, they decided to bring mobile technology into money transfers.
Aderemi, previously Googles head of mobile strategic partnerships in Europe, describes the service: Moni makes sending money home as easy as sending a text message. It is the first truly mobile cross-border app designed to simplify how people send money to their families and friends abroad.
Heres how it works:
- User downloads the Moni app on to their smartphone;
- User enters the mobile phone number of the person they wish to send funds to;
- User enters how much they wish to send and funds the account by taking a picture of their debit card;
- Recipient gets a notification by SMS asking them to download the app or go to a secure webpage to enter the details of how they wish to receive the funds – bank account or mobile wallet; and then
- Moni enables the delivery of funds to the recipient.
