Page 220 - ITU-T Focus Group Digital Financial Services – Technology, innovation and competition

ITU-T Focus Group Digital Financial Services
Technology, Innovation and Competition

alerts. The launch of the switch has repeatedly been delayed however, most recently due to apparent delays
256
in regulatory approvals. 257

Safaricom at the end of 2016 indicated however that ‘it is in discussions with five companies’ to broaden the
availability of M-Pesa services though interoperability.
258
Philippines, Mexico, Kenya

Coins.ph, Abra, Bitpesa, and Bitso are some of the DLT and Bitcoin-based startups targeting the remittance
market component of DFS. Many claim to have less of a forex risk, have faster transactions times, and lower
transaction fees. They bypass the traditional payment and switching ‘rails’ for international funds transfers
259
but still need to be integrated into a local infrastructure components and are subject to local anti-money
laundering (AML) regulations to do cash in and cash out from Bitcoin.

256 All Africa (2016) Kenya: Roll-Out of Banks' Joint Mobile Cash Transfer Platform Postponed, available at https:// goo. gl/ 5eZmkz
257 BD Africa (2017) Banks’ Plan To Set Up Mobile Money Transfer Platform Stalls, available at https:// goo. gl/ FOsMlP
258 Standard (2016) Safaricom In Talks With Five Firms On M-Pesa’s Future, available at https:// goo. gl/ Acm0Fa
259 With Abra – which claims to be the first digital cash peer-to-peer network - sending and receiving funds is free, as is adding and
withdrawing funds using a partner bank account. See Abra (2017) Fees, available at https:// www. goabra. com/ fees/

196