Institutions influencing mobile banking and payments

Initially, especially in Europe, the industry has seen the establishment of many standards bodies all trying to influence the industry. These bodies ultimately tried to advance the case of their sponsors or owners rather than the industry as a whole.

Lately, a number of institutions started generating traction and the industry is being formed through their actions. These organisations are either non-profit bodies looking after the interests of their members or are philanthropic in nature. It is important to take cognizance of their actions as they have a major influence on the industry today.

I have listed some of these organisations below. This is not intended to be a comprehensive list, but rather an attempt to trigger more thoughts and contributions. (In other words: help me to make this list more comprehensive)

• The Mobile Payment Forum is one of the earliest institutions with membership from all participants in the mobile payment eco-system. Founded during the heydays of mobile payments in 2001, the organisation is currently trying to define its role and contribution, having moved its attention more towards proximity payments and mobile marketing.
  
• The Mobey Forum is an organization initially established by major European banks (including Deutsche Bank, ABN Amro and others). A lot of the initial work was spent on developing security standards to be deployed amongst the banks. Since about two to three years ago Mobile Operators and Vendors were also invited to join and the organization became much more relevant.
• The GSM Association have been especially active during the past few years. The MMT program was announced during the GSM World Congress in Barcelona (2007) with a number of objectives: To increase mobile operator revenue through financial services, to activate every phone to be able to send and receive money and to actively accelerate this through well-funded programs. In executing on these objectives, the GSMA is working closely with banks and other relevant organisations (e.g. Mastercard, Western Union etc
  
• Pay Circle was founded during 2002 by technology companies (like Siemens and Sun) to advance the development of relevant technology solutions. According to the website, the mission was achieved and the organisation closed. There are other organizations that were also active in the past, but have subsequently disappeared. (like Radicchio)
• CGAP (and the WorldBank) are very active to support mobile payment initiatives. A number of grants were recently announced and included amongst others grants for Consolidated Bank in Kenya, Tameer Bank in Pakistan, Wizzit in South Africa, XAC Bank in Mongolia. In addition to money CGAP also provides consulting support, excellent research and other guidance.
• Finmark Trust is a South African based organisation with interest into Africa that supports the deployment of low cost financial services including through mobile banking

There this is a start. See if we can increase and add to the list