Page 69 - State-of-the-Industry-2013

aPPendix B – GlOSSary

Float the balance of e-money, or physical cash, or money in a bank account that an agent can immedi-
ately access to meet customer demands to purchase (cash in) or sell (cash out) electronic money.

Government-to-person a payment by a Government to a person’s mobile money account.
(G2p) payment

informal fnancial services Financial services ofered by unregulated entities. examples of informal fnancial services are susu
collections in Ghana, loan-shark lending, savings groups, etc.

international remittance Cross border fund transfer from one person to another person. this transaction requires an interme-
diary organisation such as Western union.

interoperability the ability of users of diferent mobile money services to transact directly with each other. interop-
erability requires technical compatibility between systems, but can only take efect when commer-
cial interconnectivity agreements have been concluded.

Liquidity the ability of an agent to meet customers’ demands to purchase (cash in) or sell (cash out)
e-money. the key metric used to measure the liquidity of an agent is the sum of their e-money and
cash balances (also known as their foat balance).

merchant payment a payment made from a mobile wallet via a mobile money platform to a retail merchant in
exchange for goods or services.

mobile credit and savings mobile credit and savings use the mobile phone to provide credit and/or savings services
to the underserved.

mmu tracks mobile credit and savings services that meet the following criteria:
• the service allows subscribers to save money in an account that provides principal security,
and in some cases an interest rate, and/or allows subscribers to borrow a certain amount of
money that they agree to repay within a specifed period of time.
• the service must allow underserved people to save money and/or to apply for credit and repay
it more easily using a mobile device. Services that ofer the mobile phone as just another
channel to access a traditional savings account and/or credit product are not included.

• the service must be available even to customers with basic mobile devices.

mobile fnancial the use of a mobile phone to access fnancial services and execute fnancial transactions. this
services (mFs) includes both transactional and non-transactional services, such as viewing fnancial information
on a user’s mobile phone. mobile money, mobile insurance, mobile credit and mobile savings are
mobile fnancial services.

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