He studies synthetic biology, develops mobile games for emerging markets with a member of pop group Black Eyed Peas, is an advisory member of NASA’s Ames research centre and serves as counsel to the University of California in his free time. By day, he is chief technology officer for Citi Transaction Services. Meet Antonio Benjamin.

Mobile money, including banking and payments, is encroaching into the everyday life of the consumer. Monetising the business is still proving difficult, but thanks to the abundance of products available already, tangible business models are slowly emerging.

Vakibank's five-year plan to upgrade its IT infrastructure and completely remake its core banking application is ambitious but, according to CIO Ali Engin Eroglu, it is vital if the bank is to keep pace with Turkey's technology-focused banking sector.

Growth rates and returns on consumer lending in Russia are remarkable, but the market demands increasing levels of sophistication to ensure success.

As more and more stakeholders specialise in tools for the mobile payments space, e-commerce and mobile payments are converging, connecting the digital supply chain. So, while the mobile payments space is not an integrated web yet, headway is being made.

As consumer spending increasingly moves to online, so too do payments, with digital wallets becoming embedded in the payments culture with the aim of making online transactions both convenient and secure. 

In Turkey, banks have stopped talking about alternative delivery channels. They consider all channels – including branches, ATMs and mobile – a core business, and this rise in digital banking is spurring competition and, as a result, innovation.

Near-field-communication technology for mobile payments has seen huge investment and been much feted, but is yet to take off in the mainstream. What will it take for consumers to take to this new way of paying for their purchases?

Personalised and location-based marketing tactics could be a catalyst for higher usage of mobile payments and could, in turn, unlock new business approaches.