During 2004 the largest African bank (Standard Bank) and the largest African telco (MTN) formed a joint venture called Mobile Money Holdings. This is a 50:50 venture with the objective of developing product that will enable subscribers to have access to new and advanced mobile banking products. The company launched an exciting solution in South Africa the next year (2005) and is in the process of launching more solutions trough-out Africa and the Middle-East.Recently, Citi-bank announce a joint venture with South Korea's telco SK Telecom. This will be a 50:50 JV called... Mobile Money Ventures and will be based in San Francisco. The objective of the venture will be to "develop an advanced mobile banking platform..." See any similarities?
Also see a previous post on Mobile Money.