Money Transfer by Mobile phones

Money Transfer by Mobile phones

Proprietary and Confidential Page 1

2009

Technical Approach for


Thinkways Software Technologies PVT. LTD.

#254 / 1, 5th Cross, Vasanthappa Block,

Ganganagar, Bangalore – 560 032

PH: +91-80-42664800



2009

Table of Contents

1. Executive Summary ......................................................................................................................... 3

2. Stake holders ..................................................................................................................................... 3

3. Logistics ............................................................................................................................................. 3

4. Transaction ........................................................................................................................................ 4

5. Features: .......................................................................................................................................... 10

6. Technology: ..................................................................................................................................... 10

7. Transaction Flow: ........................................................................................................................... 10

8. Conclusion ...................................................................................................................................... 20



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1. Executive Summary

With the advent of growth in mobile communication in Africa, the lives of millions

of unbanked users are being transformed by innovative mobile financial services.

For the past few years Thinkways has been analyzing and researching on various

solutions to provide basic banking facilities to the unfortunate many.

Thinkways Mobile money transfer is a unique feature of our mobile financial

platform which will allow unbanked users to successfully transfer or perform

transactions without an actual bank account.

2. Stake holders

1. Operator : The owner of the system

2. Bank

3. Agent : Airtime seller

4. Operator’s Customer with bank account

5. Operator’s Customer without bank account

6. Customer of a different operator

3. Logistics

Operator will tie up with banks.

Operator will have its agents in various part of the country.

Generally the agents will be the same as airtime sellers.



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4. Transaction

Money is transferred as airtime to airtime or airtime to money or money to

airtime based on the availability of the bank account and airtime.

Scenario 1:

Sender: has no bank account

Sender: with the operator

Receiver: has no bank account

Receiver: with the operator

Airtime to Airtime:



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Here the money transfer will be through airtime transfer. Both are with

the same operator.

Scenario 2:



Receiver: has bank account


Airtime to Money:

Peer to peer where the receiver has bank account. Money is transferred

as airtime and received as money. Both are with the same operator.

Scenario 3:

Sender: has bank account



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Money to airtime:

Peer to peer where the receiver does not have bank account. Both are

with the same operator.

Scenario 4:





Money to money:

Peer to peer where both receiver and sender have bank accounts. Both

are with the same operator. Operator has tie up with the banks. Either airtime

or money can be transferred.

This is same as mobile banking. Here the customer can also get other

features of mobile banking like balance enquiry, cheque status etc.

Scenario 5:






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Receiver: not with the operator

Airtime to Money

Transaction where the receiver does not have bank account and is not a

customer of the same operator. So transfer of airtime is not possible. The

sender does the transaction through an agent of the operator. The receiving

party gets a secret code of the transaction through SMS and goes to the agent

and collects the cash by giving the secret code.

Scenario 6:





Money to Money:

In this transaction the sender has bank account. He will transfer money

as airtime. The receiver will get a secret code of the transaction. The receiver

will go the agent and upon submitting the security code, he will receive the

money.

Scenario 7:


Sender: not with the operator





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Money to Airtime:

The sender will go to the agent and pay him the money to be

transferred to the receiver. The receiver will receive the money as airtime.

Scenario 8:





Money to Money:


transferred to the receiver. The receiver will receive the money in the bank

account or as airtime.

Scenario 9:







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Money to Money:


transferred to the receiver. The receiver will receive get a secret code for the

transaction as SMS. Upon submission of the secret code with an agent he will

receive the money.

For all this transactions the operator would charge a transaction fee and

which could be shared among the stake holders.



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5. Features:

1. Airtime topup

2. Shopping

3. Money transfer

4. Utility bill payment

5. Peer to Peer

6. Ticketing

7. Loyalty program/ Reward points

6. Technology:

The above transactions are done through various channels and methods.

1. J2me App on the phone(GRPS/SMS)

2. USSD (Unstructured Supplementary service Data)

3. WIB (wireless internet browser)

4. WAP

5. IVR

6. STK

7. Transaction Flow:



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Money transfer done by an agent on behalf of a customer

1. Mobile application (J2ME)

A J2ME is loaded in the agent’s mobile that has the following features:

a. Bio-Metric validation for authenticating the agent

b. Functionality to take input for sending Money Deposit request to the

server

c. Functionality to take input for sending Money Transfer request to the

server

d. Functionality that sends SMS in a pre-defined format to the Intermediate

server

2. Intermediate server

a. An intermediate server receives the request SMS through a modem and

validates basic message format etc…



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b. The server sends a Bank transaction request to the Bank’s server through

the Bank’s ATM Switch over the internet

c. The server parses the response from the Bank’s server and sends a

response SMS to the client

d. Maintains a Transaction Log for all communications

3. Print Receipt / Transaction Slip

a. A Receipt / Transaction Slip is printed by the agent and handed over to the

client, on successful completion of transaction.

Money transfer done by an agent on behalf of a customer

1. Mobile application (J2ME)

A J2ME is loaded in the agent’s mobile that has the following features:

a. Functionality to take input for sending Money Transfer request to the

server



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b. Functionality that sends SMS in a pre-defined format to the Intermediate

server

2. Intermediate server

c. An intermediate server receives the request SMS through a modem and

validates basic message format etc…

d. The server sends a Bank transaction request to the Bank’s server through

the Bank’s ATM Switch over the internet

e. The server parses the response from the Bank’s server and sends a

response SMS to the client

f. Maintains a Transaction Log for all communications



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Sequence for account creation

1. A customer fills up a registration form and submits it to an agent

2. The Agent forwards the request to the service provider

3. The service provider verifies the details. If the data is valid an account is created

by the Service provider for the customer and a mail is sent to the customer

regarding the account details, password etc…

Note: The account creation process is done manually.



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Sequence for Money transfer by agent

1. A customer approaches an agent and deposits money

2. Customer deposits money and request to make a transfer to other account

3. The Agent forwards the request to the service provider

4. Validation is done at the Service Provider server. When approved a confirmation

message is sent or a NG Message with the error details

5. When approved, the agent either sends a confirmation or cancel request to the

server

6. When the Confirmation is sent the Customer’s and the Agent’s db is updated

with the transaction value

7. The beneficiary collects money from any of the agent by providing his account

details



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Sequence for Money transfer by customer

1. A customer sends a request to the service provider to make a money transfer



3. When approved, the customer either sends a confirmation or cancel request to

the server

4. When the Confirmation is sent the Customer’s db is updated with the transaction

value

5. The beneficiary collects money from any of the agent by providing his account

details



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Sequence for Money collection by customer

1. A customer approaches an agent, provides account details and request for money

2. The agent sends a balance enquiry / withdrawal request to the server along with

the customer account details.



4. When approved, the agent either sends a confirmation or cancel request to the

server

5. When the Confirmation is sent the Customer’s and the Agent’s db is updated

with the transaction value

8. Conclusion

The mobile phone will eventually be the most effective medium of providing

financial services to the millions unbanked. Mobile Money Transfer is a start to the

number of financial services to be provided in the future.

For further information please contact Alok Subudhi. Email : [email protected].

Documents

Money Transfer by Mobile phones