Eligibility Criteria

Certification is open to all providers of mobile money services, whether they are a mobile network operator, a bank or an over-the-top provider. The Certification is available to mobile money services operating within a variety of business models and regulatory environments across the world.

In order to be eligible for the Certification, a service should meet the following criteria:

1. A mobile money service should allow sending and receiving payments using a mobile phone interface
2. The service must be available to the unbanked, for example, people who do not have access to a formal account at a financial institution
3. The service must offer a network of physical transactional points which can include agents, outside of bank branches and ATMs, that make the service widely accessible to everyone. The agent network must be significantly larger than the service’s formal ‘brick and mortar’ outlets.
4. Mobile banking or payment services (such as Apple Pay and Google Pay) that offer the mobile phone as just another channel to access a traditional banking product(s) are not included in the GSMA definition.

The following services are considered not to be mobile money services, and cannot become certified:

1. Mobile banking services that offer the mobile phone as just another channel to access a traditional banking product.
2. Payment services linked to a traditional banking product or credit card.