Banks and other financial institutions are rushing to enter partnerships with mobile operators (wireless carriers) to offer a new breed of integrated financial products, all controlled from the convenience of your mobile phone (cell phone).
These new products integrate a traditional bank account with a mobile tariff package (rate or minute plan) and innovatively give you secure control over your finances from this mobile phone.
Competition amongst financial institutions for consumer’s current account business is intense, and differentiation by any means other than price is very desirable; hence the attraction of an integrated proposition to financial institutions. Mobile operators, keen to reduce churn (where consumers move between networks to gain a new handset or lower tariffs), see financial institutions as having developed longer lasting relationships with their customers.