ERICSSON AND WESTERN UNION JOIN FORCES TO FAST TRACK MOBILE FINANCIAL SERVICES

Global brands Ericsson (NASDAQ:ERIC) and Western Union (NYSE: WU) recently announced a strategic agreement designed to accelerate the interconnection between the m-commerce eco-system and the existing financial world.

The first step of this agreement will result in seamless platform integration between the Western Union Mobile Money Transfer network and the Ericsson suite of M-Commerce solutions, including Ericsson Converged Wallet, Ericsson Wallet Platform, and Ericsson M-Commerce Interconnect. This will enable mobile network operators to easily include Western Union Mobile Money Transfers in the service suite of their mobile financial service offers.

Ericsson’s M-commerce services portfolio is designed to unlock the potential of the wallet, fasttrack mobile operators’ time to market in launching mobile financial services and support the rapid adoption of M-commerce by their subscribers. The portfolio of services can speed time to revenue, increase adoption and stickiness, cost efficiency and performance for mobile network operators and deliver the technology infrastructure to support an interconnected M-commerce eco-system.

Western Union has been a market leader in mobile money transfer for the past four years. By joining forces with Western Union for these services, mobile operators can connect their accounts easily and simply to the world’s premier money transfer network of more than 450,000 Agent locations across 200 countries and territories. This enables account holders to easily send and/or receive money transfers globally.

In integrating Western Union’s services and Ericsson platforms, mobile network operators will be able to further accelerate their launch of mobile financial services. Operators rolling out services using the Ericsson M-Commerce solutions will be able to quickly and easily deploy Western Union Mobile Money Transfer services as well, essentially “out of the box” when they contract with Western Union.

Ericsson and Western Union will next jointly explore strategic collaborations to further simplify the establishment of mobile financial services by mobile network operators.

The alliance between these two world-leading Information and Communications Technology (ICT) and remittance organizations is based on a shared ambition to make mobile financial services available to consumers around the world.

Hans Vestberg, President and CEO of Ericsson, said: “With 2012 set to be a year of rapid transition and dynamic change across the m-commerce industry, operators and financial institutions have a chance to evolve their role and meet consumer needs and expectations in new ways. Our business ambition is to accelerate access and interconnection between the m-commerce eco-system and the existing financial world. Through this agreement with Western Union, we are helping mobile network operators and financial institutions get closer to their customers with differentiated wallet services that connect and add value to their consumers.”

Diane Scott, Chief Marketing Officer and President, Western Union Ventures, said: “Ericsson and Western Union have a very powerful combination of global scale, relationships, complementary expertise and brands. Together we believe we can bring mobile financial services to more places in the world than ever before – unlocking the power of financial services for millions of people worldwide.”