Monitise, Clairmail Deal Shows Mobile Banking's Growing Popularity

From a TechCrunch article regarding Monitise’s purchase of Clairmail:

One more sign of the mobile money space continuing to grow up: some significant consolidation underway. Today, the UK-based mobile banking specialists Monitise announced that it is buying Clairmail, a U.S.-based competitor, for $173 million, as part of its global expansion.

The combined group says it will serve 13 million customers world-wide processing some $10 billion of payments weekly, and will give Monitise a much bigger and direct presence in the North American market: one-third of the top 50 U.S. financial institutions are now clients of the group.

Monitise and Clairmail both focus on an “infrastructure” play around mobile banking and mobile payments. Their main business is in providing the backend to let banks and other financial institutions offer mobile banking, payment and shopping services to its customers.

The link-up between Clairmail and Monitise will not only give the two companies a bigger geographical reach, but will also give customers of the companies access to providing banking services on a much wider international scale.

“This deal is transformational for our customers, our team, our shareholders and our company. It is a compelling combination and great news for all those wanting to offer bank-grade mobile money services to billions of consumers, not only in the US but worldwide,” commented Alastair Lukies, Monitise Group CEO, in a statement.

That is also furthered by Monitise’s existing strategic relationships with payments giants Visa Inc. and FIS.

This deal is a sure sign of mobile banking’s popularity and growth is the beginning of industry consolidation. And while the market is not yet entering a mature phase, there will likely be other deals on the horizon as market leaders try to defend, or expand, their market presence.

Deals like this, which introduce a broader customer and regional reach, are particularly enticing, as they offer greater synergies for their respective customers.

Click here to read more from the TechCrunch article.