Will mobile financial services be the answer to the problems with credit cards facing the poor in Canada?

A recent article from the Toronto Star describes the many challenges that low income Canadians experience with credit cards. The article is written by Rita Trichur and can be accessed at: http://www.thestar.com/business/article/717130--credit-cards-still-bey
ond-reach?bn=1

The article suggests that although credit cards are the “preferred mode of payment” in Canada, there are many consumers that are not able to obtain card products. Without credit cards, lower income and individuals without credit histories, are not able to access the basic goods and services that many Canadians take for granted (i.e. buying mobile content, renting cars, proving identification etc.).

The article also provides an overview of the results of a study on lack of access to plastic money by the Public Interest Advocacy Centre “PIAC”. The study states that “Ottawa and card issuers collaborate on creating a new financial product that could serve as a financial credential and be also used as the key component of a payment system that can be recognized by issuers' networks and databases.”

As soon as I read that, I thought to myself that many of our experts from the mobile financial community would have more than a few ideas about what that new financial product could be for Canada.

So how about it? Does anyone have any recommendations about how mobile money products can help provide access to products and services for poor and financially marginalized Canadians?

I'm sure that the the authors of the study would like to hear about the innovative ways that mobile money is already solving this exact problem in countries around the world. Brent

Posted on: Friday, October 30, 2009