Page 68 - State-of-the-Industry-2013

State OF the induStry 2013

appendix B - Glossary 38

agent outlet in the case of mobile money, an agent outlet is a location where one or several mobile money
agents are contracted to facilitate transactions for users. the most important of these are cash con-
version transactions for customers (cash-in and cash-out). in many instances, agents register new
customers too. agents usually earn commissions for performing each of these services. as they are
human touch point for the mobile money service, they also often provide front-line customer ser-
vice such as teaching new users how to initiate transactions on their phone. the kinds of individuals
or businesses that can serve as agents will sometimes be limited by regulation, but small-scale
traders, microfnance institutions, chain stores, and bank branches serve as agents in some markets.
Some industry participants prefer the terms “merchant” or “retailer” to describe this person or
business to avoid certain legal connotations of the term “agent” as it is used in other industries.

an active agent outlet is an agent outlet that facilitated at least one transaction within the
past 30 days.

airtime top-up Purchase of airtime via mobile money, usually funded from a mobile money account.

anti-money laundering/ a set of rules, typically issued by central banks, that attempt to prevent and detect the use of
combating the fnancing fnancial services for money laundering or to fnance terrorism. the global standard-setter for aml/
of terrorism (amL/cFt) CFt rules is the Financial action task Force (FatF).

bill payment a payment made by a person from either a wallet or over the counter to an organisation via a
mobile money platform in exchange for services provided.

bulk payment a payment made by an organisation via a mobile money platform to a person’s mobile wallet. For
example: salary payments made by an organisation to their employees mobile wallet or payments
made by a Government to a recipient’s mobile wallet (G2P payment).

cash-in the process by which a customer credits his account with cash. this is usually via an agent who takes
the cash and credits the customer’s mobile money account with the same amount of e-money.

cash-out the process by which a customer deducts cash from his mobile money account. this is usually via
an agent who gives the customer cash in exchange for a transfer of e-money from the customer’s
mobile money account.

e-money Short for “electronic money,” is stored value held in the accounts of users, agents, and the pro-
vider of the mobile money service. typically, the total value of e-money is mirrored in (a) bank
account(s), such that even if the provider of the mobile money service were to fail, users could
recover 100% of the value stored in their accounts. that said, bank deposits can earn interest, while
e-money traditionally cannot.

38. Certain defnitions were taken from Guideline note mobile Financial Services: Basic terminology, by mobile Financial Services Working Group, aFi
http://www.af-global.org/sites/default/fles/publications/mFSWG%20Guideline%20note%20on%20terminology.pdf
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