Characteristics of Mobile financial products

Just having written the previous blog, I was wondering what would be the characteristics of mobile financial products. What would get a financial product to qualify as mobile? Or what should one be looking for when finding financial products to deploy on mobile?

There are some things that, counter-intuitively, should not be a disqualification for mobile financial products. For instance, mobile financial products should not be for small amounts only - it is quite fine to do this for big value tickets too. As a matter of fact (if properly deployed) the phone could be a nice security enhancer for large value financial products.

The following is my list for characteristics of mobile financial products.

• Should be real-time products. Balances should be up to date all the time and any transaction should be applied immediately.
• Should be identity dependant. The ownership of the product and the identification of the ownership should be central to the product. The mobile phone carries identity best.
• The product should be dependent on some dynamic element. Transactions/payments that can be run against it or prices/exchange rates that change. Long term products where nothing change are better suited to paper. (takes less electricity)
• Information display and input fields must be limited. You do not want to complete a few page application form on a phone.

I am sure this is not an exhaustive list and much more can be said about this topic, but hopefully this stimulate some thinking.