Believers in the power of mobile devices to transform financial services will tell you that consumers always leave home with three things: their keys, their mobile phone and their wallet. If they had to leave one of these behind, it would most likely be their wallet. One day, however, consumers will be able to leave their physical wallet behind forever – when its contents are transferred to their mobile phone, and a number of players are battling it out for their version of the mobile wallet to be the one that gains critical mass.
The competition is not so much a war of wallets, says Sirpa Nordlund, executive director of industry association Mobey Forum, because many of the mobile wallets are not on the market yet. “It is a war of ecosystems,” she says.
