When the phone becomes your wallet by Corina Ciubotaru

Money. It's the lifeblood of all economies, it's what some of us live for and over the years, we managed to turn it into many wonderful things. The first currencies were spices, furs and precious metals then came the coins. Their rule ended with the birth of the bank notes in Europe, which then spread in the entire world and have ended up sharing wallets with electronic cards. But now, none of these forms of money are needed; developing countries are quickly adopting the practice of storing cash on mobile phones without using bank accounts, since more of them have mobiles than bank accounts or cards. They can pay at certain shops just by waving the phone and they can also withdraw money or send it to each other using a simple SMS, like Filipinos do who work abroad. They can even pay their bills through a text message from another country and this is particularly useful if they want to feel closer to the family and involved in it's every day life. It's big business for the telephone operators too, as the biggest two in the Philippines now have between them 5.5 million users for this service, with abroad workers having sent home $12.7 billion last year. The system is also very safe, each transfer requiring a personal identification number known only to the phone's user. Other countries where this so-called "mobile banking" system is growing steadily include Kenya and South Africa but those who have mastered this business and have been using it for years are Japan and South Korea.

related story: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070930/ap_on_hi_te/philippines_cell_phone_wallet;_ylt=At0muEDyoQBkWKDOmjhgRpis0NUE

by Corina Ciubotaru for PocketNews (http://pocketnews.tv)

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