Article detailing the role of M-Commence and Utiba was published on India Times, Economic Times.

Excerpts of the article,

EMPOWERMENT of the bottom-of-the-pyramid never looked so feasible. A revolution is silently but forcefully sweeping the developing countries, that could soon equip every single person with a mobile wallet and provide them with not just digital payment facilities but huge savings as well. The trend in mobile wallet usage has shown such vigour in countries like the Philippines, Malaysia, Thailand and Pakistan not to mention Asian leaders in that domain, Japan and South Korea, that it could give a complex to consumers in westem economies.

Western Union Introduces Digital Vendor Program for Mobile Wallet, Mobile Banking

BARCELONA, Spain - (Business Wire) The Western Union Company (NYSE: WU), a global leader in money-transfer services, announced today the launch of its Digital Vendor Program intended to extend the reach and accessibility of Western Union Money Transfer® services to mobile finance initiatives in Latin America, Africa, the Middle East and Asia.

“Establishing a strong mobile vendor program is a critical step in the delivery of our ‘Western Union Anywhere’ service proposition,” said Matt Dill, SVP and Head of Western Union Digital Ventures. “By collaborating on a global level with proven mobile platform providers, we believe we can simplify deployments for our mobile partners and introduce a more consistent Western Union experience for consumers.”

Western Union entered the mobile finance space in the second quarter of 2008, with an endorsement for a global pilot program by the GSM Association, a global trade association representing more than 750 mobile operators worldwide. The first providers to join the certification program are four mobile finance platform providers with both active and planned service implementations: South Africa-based Fundamo, India-based mChek, U.S.-based Sybase 365 and Singapore-based Utiba Pte.

Utiba is pleased to invite you to join us at the next coming GSMA Mobile Money Summit in Barcelona. It is the ‘must attend’ event for anyone who is actively involved with M-Commerce or is entering the space. Held on Jun 23-24 at Fira Montjuic in Barcelona, Spain, GSMA Mobile Money Summit 2009 will provide the insights, solutions and connections to make the most of this global phenomenon.

As part of the conference program, the GSMA has invited us to speak as well as show case our solution of M-Commerce.

Please visit us at Booth No D1 to see the demonstration of U:Market, our end-to-end solution for M-Banking, M-Payment and Mobile Money Transfer services in both developed and emerging markets.

To set up a meeting with us during the event, please email our Sales and Marketing Manager, Ms Priscilla Le, at priscilla.le@utiba.com.

We look forward to meeting you there.

21 May 2009

Latest update on Mobile Financial Services Conference at Sheraton Towers, Singapore!

Utiba and Informa are pleased to confirm that Chris G Dean, Associate, Western Union will be joining the workshop faculty on 28 May.
He will be sharing Western Union’s leading expertise in Mobile Remittances with Gregg Marshall, SVP Global Sales from Utiba and Blums Pineda, MD of Exicon.

Limited places are available for confirmed conference delegates – please contact our Sales and Marketing Manager, Ms Priscilla Le at priscilla.le@utiba.com or contact the organizer directly, Mary, on mary.aguilar@ibcasia.com.sg to reserve your place today! Full programme updates can be viewed on www.mobilefinancialevent.com


POST-Conference Workshop D
Thursday 28th May 2009 (14.00 to 17.30)
Setting Up International Mobile Remittance Services


This workshop will equip delegates with a more detailed understanding of the anatomy of a typical International Mobile Remittance Service. The leaders will examine the steps and the processes that you and your team will have to deal with. The workshop will be run with a highly interactive format, allowing delegates current issues and concerns to be addressed in full.

Session 1: Examining The Mobile Remittance Ecosystem: Components, Players And Owners

Session 2: Creating A International Mobile Remittance Service Offerings

Session 3: Evaluating Vendor MMT Solutions for Mobile Financial Services

WORKSHOP LEADERS:
Gregg Marshall is SVP Global Sales for Utiba Pte Ltd, a leading provider of mobile commerce solutions and creator of GCash for Globe Telecom. Over a fifteen year telecommunications career in Asia Mr. Marshall has held executive positions in services, software and infrastructure with AT&T, Lucent Technologies, ITXC. Prior to joining Utiba Mr. Marshall was Managing Director Asia for Valista, a Dublin, Ireland based mCommerce solution provider.

Blums Pineda is Managing Director of EXICON, an innovative strategy and execution consultancy specializing in mobile and online. Mr. Pineda’s areas of expertise are specifically in mobile money, include mobile banking, mobile payments, remittance, and microfinance. He has advised large banks, operators, and microfinance institutions.

Chris Dean works with the Digital Ventures team at Western Union USA, on product management and strategy and partners with mobile network operators on the customer experience and integrating different technologies. He has more than 20 years of experience in software product development, management and marketing, with experience in client-server, P2P, web and mobile applications across several industries, including financial services, retail, insurance, law, management consulting and government agencies. Dean has an MBA in Marketing from Heriot Watt University and a BS in Chemical Engineering from UMIST with a concentration in Software Development.

Utiba is proud to exhibit at MMT Africa 09, the world’s only independent conference on MMT. It is the 'must attend' event for anyone who is actively involved with MMT or is entering the space. Held on May 5-6 in Johannesburg, South Africa, MMT Africa 09 is the perfect place in the world where you can meet a varied international mix of mobile network operators, banks, microfinance institutions, money transfer networks, regulators, technology providers, retail networks and other key market participants all in one place. at this world's first independent mobile money transfer conference.

We invite you to visit us at Booth No 8 to see the demonstration of the latest release of our U:Market software, an integrated mobile payment and settlement system.

For further details, come and talk to us at MMT Africa 09 or call us at +65 6733 9598. See you there!!!