BARCELONA, Spain, June 24 /PRNewswire/ --

- Visa and Globe Telecom Named as First Two Founding Partners

The GSMA, the body that represents the worldwide mobile communications industry, announced the launch of the Mobile Money Exchange initiative at the Annual Mobile Money Summit in Barcelona. Visa and Globe Telecom are the first two founding partners of the Mobile Money Exchange, which has been launched to engage with new stakeholders and sectors that are entering the mobile ecosystem.

Through this initiative, the GSMA is helping financial services companies who are entering the mobile environment, by providing a common voice and formal business forum for business collaboration. The ethos behind the formation of the Exchange is for best practise and innovations to be highlighted and shared, both across industry and inter-industry. The Mobile Money Exchange will feature an online knowledge portal with social business networking and community functionality designed to advise and serve the interests of the mobile money industry.

Mobile Money Exchange builds on the Mobile Money Programme that the GSMA launched in 2006 and which has been a tremendous success in terms of building a global community, said Bill Gajda, Chief Commercial Officer, GSMA. Through the Mobile Money Exchange, fundamental principles and requirements which are not currently being met, such as fragmentation and therefore lack of ability to scale, will be addressed and the Exchange will advance, advise and serve the interests of the mobile money market.

As a founding partner, Visa looks forward to helping drive thought leadership and industry participation in the Mobile Money Exchange programme in collaboration with the GSMA, said Tim Attinger, Global Head of Product Development for Visa Inc.

We congratulate GSMA for the foresight to build on its successful Mobile Money Transfer initiative to this new Mobile Money Exchange programme, said Globe Telecom President and CEO Mr. Ernest L. Cu. At Globe we have been constantly involved in global initiatives to hasten the advancement of mobile money and moves to position it into a mainstream business line not only for telcos but for the financial services industry as well. Being a Founding Partner in this umbrella program provides us an avenue to collaborate with experts and stakeholders in the mobile commerce space to come closer to this objective, he added.

The Mobile Money Exchange is open to any organisation and seeks to establish a broad-based stakeholder community that comprises key areas of mobile money including mPayments, mBanking, MMU (Mobile Money for the Unbanked) and MMT (Mobile Money Transfer). It will facilitate new partnerships and business models, drive thought leadership, champion innovation and knowledge transfer through engaging all elements of the mobile money industry. The Mobile Money Exchange will have an Advisory Board consisting of a select number of thought leaders to shape and develop the Exchange, working alongside discussion groups and committees who collaboratively set guidelines, standards and best practise.

For more information about partnerships or sponsorship opportunities please email mobilemoneyexchange@gsm.org.

About the GSMA

The GSMA represents the interests of the worldwide mobile communications industry. Spanning 219 countries, the GSMA unites nearly 800 of the world's mobile operators, as well as more than 200 companies in the broader mobile ecosystem, including handset makers, software companies, equipment providers, Internet companies, and media and entertainment organisations. The GSMA is focused on innovating, incubating and creating new opportunities for its membership, all with the end goal of driving the growth of the mobile communications industry.

For more information, please visit http://www.gsmworld.com.

Daniel Lowther of GSMA, +44-7747-636-687, press@gsm.org