Vritti March 2018 | Page 19

vritti Technically Speaking interoperable transactions, no cash-out happens for sending operator and it saves on commission. For the receiving mobile money provider, since the incoming remi- ttance from an interoperable transaction is in digital form, hence no cash-in commission needs to be paid. Thus an interoperable transaction is a win-win for both sending and receiving mobile money providers. Moreover, interoperable transaction is also good for the vision of a cash-light economy as it allows money to remain in a digital form. F I G U R E 19 March 2018 The statistics obtained from the markets which have adopted interoperability show the consumers preference of interoperable transactions over off-net transactions. An African operator which has enabled interoperability has seen the proportion of interoperable transactions rise exponentially and proportion of off-net transactions decline in total P2P Send transactions (Figure 2) 2 P2P Send Transaction Volume Split P2P Send Transaction Volume Split (Pre Interoperability) (Post Interoperability) 11% P2P Off-net 89% P2P On-net (Send to Same Mobile Network) Source: Mahindra Comviva analysis 48% 48% P2P Interoperable (Send to Other Mobile Networks) P2P On-net (Send to Same Mobile Network) 4% P2P Off-net Note: These graphs are based on monthly data. The Post Interoperability graph represents February 2018 data. In October 2016, the GSMA Mobile Money team published harmonized mobile money APIs. The GSMA is encouraging its members to adopt these APIs. These APIs will enable faster integration with third party systems facilitating quicker interoperability between mobile money and banks, or among mobile money providers. In October 2017, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation launched Mojaloop, an open-source software to enable interoperability between banks and financial service providers. Mojaloop is free-of-cost, thus can be used by financial service provider, governments and regulators to develop an inclusive payment platform at low cost. It is designed with the aim to serve as a model for national payment switching systems. Mojaloop has been developed in collaboration with fintech firms including Ripple, Dwolla, ModusBox, Crosslake Technologies and Software Group, and employs technologies such as the Interledger Protocol for settling funds among multiple providers across their individual systems.