ii
telecommunications companies such as Vodafone, using not banking systems but systems
devised and managed by services companies and those providing specialist products, such as
Visa’s subsidiary, Fundamo.
An equally bewildering variety of technologies are shaping not only payment systems but also
new business models. For example, near field communications [NFC] systems facilitate funds
transfer through communications standards, much as those using optical codes, short
messaging systems [SMS] or biometrics that can transfer data. Others, such as mobile money
schemes and ‘blockchain’ technologies (used in bitcoin, for example) entail radically different
business models and shift control, power and responsibility from traditional players, licensed
and regulated banks and national treasuries, to very different, and in some cases mysterious or
veiled, institutions. There is no consensus on which system is best and perhaps there is reason
be believe that some variety of systems could stabilise into multiple equilibrium states.
In consequence, we see the phenomena that dominate this report in two processes. One is the
variety of technologies and systems applied to retail payments. The other is dramatically
uneven development. Some of this unevenness is apparent in socioeconomic terms, where
wealthy groups disproportionately benefit from new payment systems. Some unevenness can
be seen between countries where differences in governance, power structures and national
preferences determine differential advantages that benefit social groups or institutions. The
purposes of this report are to describe and explain these differences, and to identify good
practices that might benefit the OIC Member States.
This report was prepared by Idea & Idea ltd. and launched at the OIC meeting in Ankara on 15
October 2015. This work has been co-ordinated by Jonathan Liebenau, PhD, as Principal
Investigator, Mr. Nofie Iman, MSc, as Researcher, and Gül Berna Özcan, PhD as Project
Manager. The project’s expert advisor is Silvia Elaluf-Calderwood, PhD. All of the authors are
affiliated with the University of London in addition to working with Idea & Idea Ltd (London).
It is published under the auspices of the the Standing Committee for Economic and
Commercial Cooperation [COMCEC] of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation. We sincerely
hope that this report will contribute to the mutual understanding of retail payment systems
throughout the OIC and to the further development of settlement systems in OIC Member
States, which in turn should help these markets to develop effective retail services by sharing
good practices.