Secure contactless mobile financial services with near field communication

Masters of ScienceThis thesis presents the results from work with three prototypes that use Near Field Communication technology to provide secure contactless mobile nancial services on mobile phones.South Afric

User Interface Challenges of Banking ATM Systems in Nigeria

The use of banking automated teller machine (ATM) technological innovations have significant importance and benefits in Nigeria, but numerous investigations have shown that illiterate and semiliterate Nigerians do not perceive them as useful or easy-to-use. Developing easy-to-use banking ATM system interfaces is essential to accommodate over 40% illiterate and semiliterate Nigerians, who are potential users of banking ATM systems. The purpose of this study was to identify strategies software developers of banking ATM systems in Nigeria use to create easy-to-use banking ATM system interfaces for a variety of people with varying abilities and literacy levels. The technology acceptance model was adopted as the conceptual framework. The study\u27s population consisted of qualified and experienced developers of banking ATM system interfaces chosen from 1 organization in Enugu, Nigeria. The data collection process included semistructured, in-depth face-to-face interviews with 9 banking ATM system interface developers and the analysis of 11 documents: 5 from participant case organizations and 6 from nonparticipant case organizations. Member checking was used to increase the validity of the findings from the participants. Through methodological triangulation, 4 major themes emerged from the study: importance of user-centered design strategies, importance of user feedback as essential interface design, value of pictorial images and voice prompts, and importance of well-defined interface development process. The findings in this study may be beneficial for the future development of strategies to create easy-to-use ATM system interfaces for a variety of people with varying abilities and literacy levels and for other information technology systems that are user interface technology dependent

The Supervisory Impact of Technology on SEACEN Financial Institutions: Issues and Challenges

The development of financial markets cannot be isolated from the influence of technology. Technology, especially information technology (IT), plays a dual role in the financial field - as the engine of development of financial products and as the engine of financial institution operations. The operations of financial institutions in SEACEN countries involving the use of IT take on the second role. The more advanced SEACEN countries can actually compete with the world leaders in IT implementation by financial institutions. However, in terms of the second role of IT, SEACEN countries are still following the lead of the developed countries. This research project is aimed at providing a comparative study on the IT implementation within SEACEN financial sectors, including its supervisory impacts, issues and challenges. The project also serves as a documentation of the development of IT implementation by financial institutions in the SEACEN region. Since most central banks in the region are the authorities for the supervision of banking systems and not of non-bank financial institutions, the discussions on financial institutions pertain to banks. The project addresses the international best practices in IT implementation, cross-country comparison regarding IT implementation by financial institutions, the supervisory impacts, and the IT supervisory framework. SEACEN countries have different levels of IT implementation and IT supervisory frameworks. The country papers and survey results show that there are three different levels of IT implementation in the SEACEN countries. They are: 1) Developed IT implementation and established IT supervisory framework; 2) Early stage of IT implementation with less-established IT supervisory framework; and 3) Less-developed IT implementation. For each level of implementation, countries face different issues and challenges. Wherever IT implementation has become an important part of financial institution operations and management, the SEACEN member central banks consider IT supervision as an integral part of the overall financial institution supervisory framework. However, since there is cross-country heterogeneity of IT implementation and IT supervisory framework, suggesting a minimum requirement for IT implementation for institutions and a model IT supervisory framework is very difficult. The research project also addresses some issues and challenges faced by the countries in the region in terms of mitigating IT risks and bringing IT implementation by financial institutions in the region to a level playing field according to international best practices. The issues and challenges suggest the need to increase cooperation among the SEACEN member countries to increase IT awareness, implement good IT governance through establishing IT supervisory frameworks which conform to international best practices, increase knowledge sharing and training programmes in order to speed up the spill-over effects from the more advanced countries in the region.

Customer satisfaction with the electronic banking services in Zimbabwe: a case of Mashonaland West Province, Zimbabwe.

Doctoral Degree. University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg.With the constant advances in technology, it is expected that life should become easier in various way, one of these being that people would no longer have to wait in queues in banks as technology allows people to do most of their transactions by computer or cell phone. This research sought to gather information on customer satisfaction with the electronic banking (e-banking) facilities and services in Zimbabwe. The problem which was identified is that people spend a lot of time waiting in queues for services they could access much more quickly on e-banking platforms. Three e-banking platforms were examined, these being automated teller machines (ATMs), internet banking, and mobile banking (m-banking). The research took the form of a descriptive case study design. It also took a mixed method approach where both quantitative and qualitative data was used. Mashonaland West Province in Zimbabwe was the location for the study. Questionnaires were distributed in all seven districts of this province, on a pro rata basis depending on population size. According to the 2012 census survey in Zimbabwe, the total population of economically active people, between the ages of 15 and 64 years living in the province was 825 911 people. The researcher used Kredjice and Morgan’s table to calculate the sample size of 384 people. Two hundred and eighty-three (283) questionnaires were returned out of the three Hundred and eighty-four (384) questionnaires which were distributed, thus the response rate was 73.7%. The Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (version 20) was used to analyze the data. Results showed that e-banking services in Zimbabwe are satisfactory as there was not a single attribute of banking where the majority of people showed dissatisfaction. However, there is a need for Zimbabwean banks to continue to educate citizens on how to use e-banking facilities effectively. Internet banking had the lowest levels of reported user satisfaction with the problem emanating from a lack of internet access by the majority of citizens. There was also no significant gap realized between bank sector managers’ perceptions of customers’ needs and wants and the actual needs of customers. A model for adoption of electronic banking in Zimbabwe has been developed by the researcher and is made up of five key factors which determine the adoption of electronic banking in Zimbabwe, these are: education, accessibility, ease of use, friendliness, and security. These key factors determine the success of electronic banking in Zimbabwe. If this model is adopted it can assist Zimbabwe banks in new products development, improving service quality and therefore establish sustainable competitive advantage

An investigation into trust and security in the mandatory and imposed use of financial ICTs upon older people

Care needs to be taken to reduce the number of people who are fearful and mistrustful of using ICT where that usage is forced upon them without choice or alternative. The growing incidence of mandatory and imposed online systems can result in confusion, misuse, fear, and rejection by people with only rudimentary ICT skills. A cohort where a high percentage of such people occur is older people, defined in this study as people over the age of 60 Examples of compulsory ICT interactions include some banks limiting bank statement access through online rather than paper-based options. Other examples include the purchase of theatre or sports events tickets through ticketing systems that require an online transaction to take place. Increasingly, people are living beyond the normal retiring age. As the older cohort increases in size and in overall global population percentage, the problem of forced technology usage affects technology acceptance, technology trust, and technology rejection. People care about ICT systems where reduced trusted acceptance of technology reduces the advantages of digital health care, the perceived security of banking and shopping, and the autonomy of ICT-driven lifestyle choices. This study aims to solve one of the puzzles of ICT-driven change, where older people can show trepidation towards using technology. By understanding the drivers that influence the choices older people make in relation to ICT systems, it may be possible to introduce a much higher level of trusted acceptance in ICT systems. Although many people adopt ICTs into their lives, many older people face difficulty in using technology when it is forced upon them. This study aims to understand the connection between how choice (or lack of choice) can lead to the rejection or resistance towards ICT usage. Older people sometimes opt towards practices that place themselves at risk of financial or informational disadvantage. This study used a qualitative approach to understanding the factors that influenced the trusted acceptance, trepidation, and in some cases rejection of ICT usage by interviewing a sample of older people. Participants were asked to consider a wide range of ICT-usage scenarios and to describe their intentions. The study focussed on circumstances where ICT usage fell under either mandatory, imposed, or voluntary conditions in order to compare user behaviour. Settings included a range of technology-reliant states that examined IT security, volition and choice, aging, trusted acceptance, and technology adoption. Participants were interviewed to discover and sort the conditions (whether singly or in combination) under which the expectation of ICT acceptance was in some way altered, diminished, or prevented. This research found that older people made poor decisions when the choice to use a technology was replaced with a mandatory or strongly imposed pathway. Mandatory ICT usage across the broad area of financial transactions brought about widespread fear and distrust of online technology usage. The results revealed that many older people not only find these innovations daunting and confronting, but they also have difficulty placing their trust in ICT systems and applications that have become mandatory. In normative conditions, increased ICT acceptance and ICT usage is expected. When ICTs are mandatory in their usage, acceptance is replaced with compulsory procedure. This does not mean that mandatory things cannot be accepted, but rather that older people will accept the need to use a technology according to their perception of what is necessary for their daily and routine interactions. This study showed that voluntary ICT usages including choices increase informed decision-making, security of online financial interactions, and trusted reliance upon ICTs. Choice in ICT usage carries greater trust than mandatory, obligated, or heavily imposed ICTs. The study revealed that mandatory ICT systems can create perceptions of fear, mistrust and uncertainty. In situations where a mandatory ICT system becomes the normative method of transaction, a strong risk to the trusted acceptance of a technology is not merely the lack of ICT-based choice, but also the inability to gain reassurance or secondary confirmation through either face to face or telephone-based communication. Trust in not just the usage, but the implied secure usage of mandated and imposed ICTs, is problematic for older people. This study revealed the significance of mandated ICT systems that limit choices for people, because older humans more readily validate and associate their trust in new innovations when they can access various different professional, technical, peer-based, social and popular opinions. The research also showed that older people are fearful and less trusting in mandatory and imposed systems because they have less financial resilience, and less opportunity to bounce back from loss and disadvantage brought about by digital and online interactions. Older people were worried and reluctant to accept technology at first glance because they knew that they had spent more time than others in a pre-internet, pre-digital environment, and their seminal life experiences are correspondingly less technology-related. The results showed that many older people preferred human communication and interaction rather than communicating, buying, paying, and trusting in purely digital, ICT-based experiences. This demonstrated a gap in the trust and security of digital systems, and the need to address those ICTs that impose and mandate instruments and procedures for daily life. Specifically this study looked at what could reduce unsafe and insecure banking practices by understanding the role of choice in the trusted usage of ICT systems. This study is significant because it shows that older people make financial and social, decisions under reactionary, insecure, and under-informed conditions as a result of a gap in terms of trust security and choice. On the one hand older people develop trust towards a new innovation based on accumulated human discussion, information and reputation. On the other hand older people hold the perception that online systems offer reduced choices. This study led to the development of a model for trusted technology choice (TTCM). It differs from traditional acceptance and diffusion thinking, by having outputs as either ICT acceptance or ICT rejection. It diverges from diffusion and technology acceptance models (TAM), because technology acceptance is not regarded as a foregone conclusion. Instead, it places a very high value upon choice and volition, trust, security and human interaction. The TTCM model, together with a framework for identifying volition barriers, provides a different set of criteria for understanding the needs of older people and their meaningful interactions with new innovation and ICTs. The practical applications for using such a model directly impact upon financial and social stability for older people. Where choices are either removed or limited due to ICT usage, older citizens are unfairly disadvantaged. A model that accurately predicts the trusted usage of ICT innovations can have a widespread effect on the implementation of large-scale public and private systems where the trusted acceptance (or rejection) of each system has on flow impact on financial, health, and other critical services that include the growing population of older people

The Mobile Commerce Prospects: A Strategic Analysis of Opportunities in the Banking Sector

Mobile Commerce has gained increasing acceptance amongst various sections of the society in previous years. The reasons for its growth can be traced back to technological and demographical developments that have influenced many aspects of the socio-cultural behaviour in today's world. The need (and/or wish) for mobility seems to be the driving force behind Mobile Commerce. The launch of UMTS technology has provided Mobile Commerce with the necessary verve.Mobile Banking presents an opportunity for banks to retain their existing, technology-savvy customer base by offering value-added, innovative services and to attract new customers from corresponding sections of the society. The customer survey provides evidence that such sections in the meanwhile include the affluent and financially relevant groups of the society in Germany. The time seems to be ripe to convert this non-negligible customer interest into business-driving customer demand. A proactive attitude on the part of the banks seems to be therefore recommendable.Many banks in Germany have come to regard Mobile Banking as a necessary tool for thwarting negative differentiation vis-à-vis rivals and to foster/retain an innovative image. This self-reinforcing dynamism is expected to gain currency in near-future so that Mobile Banking services could soon advance to a standard product - on the lines of Online Banking - offered by more or less each and every bank

Exploring value co-creation within buyer-seller relationship in mobile applications services : a model development

Mobile phones have become an indispensable part of consumers’ life where they access core and supporting services via mobile applications services (m-applications). The focus of the present study is to explore dyadic buyer-seller roles in m-applications services’ value creation taking mobile banking applications services (MB-applications) as a case study. While prior research on value co-creation in service dominant logic (S-d logic) serves as a foundation for this study, it does not provide adequate guidance on how buyer and seller co-create value in m-applications services.To address this shortcoming, semi-structured interviews were carried out with 12 banks’ officials in banks’ headquarters of Saudi Arabia. Also, six focus groups were conducted; three with MB-application services users and three with non-users which were held in Riyadh College of Technology (RCT). In addition, a content analysis of MB-applications services was conducted to support suppliers’ perspectives regarding value propositions (service offering). A conceptual framework is developed for managing co-creation to illustrate practical application of the framework.The findings pointed to six factors that shape shape service suppliers’ ability to offer and deliver value via MB-applications, namely; brand image building, bank’s business vision, customer culture-orientation, bank’s internal environment, information technology system and positioning strategy. These factors combine to establish a value proposition for banks’ customers in the MB-applications services domain.Customer’s value creation as value in-use during usage emerged in different usage situations. A value framework incorporating value consumptions (Sheth et al., 1991a) is proposed. It identifies the main value-adding elements in m-applications and the primary drivers for adopting m-applications. Findings revealed that bank managers attempted to support customers’ value creation, which was reflected in MB-application content. However, support was constrained by some insufficient assumptions about customers and the m-commerce architecture. Factors that impede MB-applications use include consumers’ banking habits, perceived risk (security and privacy); usability hindrance, marketing and promotion, technical problems, and socio-cultural barriers. Implications are drawn for service delivery value perception and mobile marketing theory, and recommendations are made to service suppliers and commercial banks to achieve sustained returns of investment from MB-applications services

Examining the adoption, usage and outcomes of mobile money services: the case of M-PESA in Kenya

This thesis will examine the adoption, usage and outcomes of a mobile money service called MPESA. Since being launched in 2007, the service has seen phenomenal growth in Kenya. Over 7.5 million users, or 34% of the adult population, have registered with M-PESA. Such growth is impressive as it has surpassed other ICTs in the country. This includes the mobile phone, which has been hailed as the fastest growing ICT in Africa. It has also surpassed the growth of mobile money in the North, where many services have been discontinued because they failed to attract a sufficient number of customers. M-PESA thus provides an interesting case of an ICT growing rapidly in the South, and “failing” in the North. In this context, the first part of the thesis examines why such rapid growth occurred. This analysis is presented from two perspectives. First, the socio-technical systems framework is used to present M-PESA as a complex system rather than an isolated application. This perspective makes clear that M-PESA grew rapidly because it had a dedicated team of system builders. These individuals took numerous strategies to enroll the elements and maintain the stability of the entire system. They further worked to engineer the social, economic, legal and political environments of the technology. Growth is also explained from the perspective of the user. The thesis makes clear that M-PESA was widely adopted because it fit into existing social practices and systems of logic. In other words, it helped users to do what they were doing before the technology was introduced. This includes money transfers back home. It also includes savings. The thesis further reveals that financial practices began to change as M-PESA became integrated into daily life. For example, users began to send money home more often. They also increased the number of their savings transactions. Such changing practices engendered a variety of consequences to daily life. This includes rising household incomes in the rural areas. It also includes new struggles over limited resources. The impacts, or wider-scale implications of usage, are also discussed. The analysis shows that a whole industry for mobile money developed as a result of M-PESA’s success. The thesis makes a contribution to knowledge in several ways. It presents a case of domestication in the South and highlights the unique factors that shape this process, from wide-scale political violence to structures of debt and obligation. It further makes the relationship between technologies and impact more clear. It shows that the technology itself does not engender the outcomes. It does, however, have a role in shaping the practices that do

Legal and regulatory aspects of mobile financial services

The thesis deals with the emergence of bank and non-bank entities that provide a range of unique transaction-based payment services broadly called Mobile Financial Services (MFS) to unbanked, underserved and underbanked persons via mobile phones. Models of MFS from Mobile Network Operators (MNOs), banks, combinations of MNOs and banks, and independent Mobile Financial Services Providers are covered. Provision by non-banks of ‘bank-type’ services via mobile phones has been termed ‘transformational banking’ versus the ‘additive banking’ services from banks. All involve the concept of ‘branchless banking’ whereby ‘cash-in/cash out’ services are provided through ‘agents.’ Funds for MFS payments may available through a Stored Value Product (SVP), particularly through a Stored Value Account SVP variant offered by MNOs where value is stored as a redeemable fiat- or mobile ‘airtime’-based Store of Value. The competitive, legal, technical and regulatory nature of non-bank versus bank MFS models is discussed, in particular the impact of banking, payments, money laundering, telecommunications, e-commerce and consumer protection laws. Whether funding mechanisms for SVPs may amount to deposit-taking such that entities could be engaged in the ‘business of banking’ is discussed. The continued use of ‘deposit’ as the traditional trigger for the ‘business of banking’ is investigated, alongside whether transaction and paymentcentric MFS rises to the ‘business of banking.’ An extensive evaluation of ‘money’ based on the Orthodox and Claim School economic theories is undertaken in relation to SVPs used in MFS, their legal associations and import, and whether they may be deemed ‘money’ in law. Consumer protection for MFS and payments generally through current statute, contract, and payment law and common law condictiones are found to be wanting. Possible regulatory arbitrage in relation to MFS in South African law is discussed. The legal and regulatory regimes in the European Union, Kenya and the United States of America are compared with South Africa. The need for a coordinated payments-specific law that has consumer protections, enables proportional risk-based licensing of new non-bank providers of MFS, and allows for a regulator for retail payments is recommended. The use of trust companies and trust accounts is recommended for protection of user funds. | viPublic, Constitutional and International LawLL. D