国际清算银行-移动支付和互操作性：来自学术文献的见解（英）-2023.4-49页_498kb

Summary of Mobile Payments and Interoperability: Insights from the Academic Literature

Introduction

This paper analyzes how competition and regulatory policies affect digital financial services, with a focus on mobile payments, by connecting various streams of academic literature. Its main objective is to highlight the applicability of existing models from related industries (e.g., telecom, payments, banking) to study mobile money interoperability and its welfare implications. Four key dimensions of interoperability are discussed:

• Mobile Network Interoperability: Involves allowing subscribers of one telecom provider to access payment services of others. Literature on tying (e.g., Chicago School argument) is adapted to show that data externalities and zero price constraints can make non-interoperability profitable, potentially harming competition and consumer welfare.

• Platform Interoperability: Refers to the ability to send money between users of different payment platforms. Without regulation, interoperability may not emerge due to strong network effects or elastic demand, as private incentives often underutilize its social benefits, reducing prices and sales.

• Agent Interoperability: Concerns the sharing of agent networks for cash-in/cash-out services in mobile money systems. Lessons from ATM interoperability and network industries (e.g., co-investment theory) suggest that interoperability can improve coverage but may discourage investment due to free-riding concerns. Tariff and pricing structures (e.g., interchange fees) must balance firm revenues and consumer welfare.

• Data Interoperability: Involves the portability of payment data across providers to enhance services like credit scoring. Banking literature shows data sharing can improve credit markets by reducing asymmetry but may have distributional effects. Ownership rights (consumer vs. firm control) are debated, with frameworks like PSD2 promoting user control.

Welfare and Consumer Implications

• Interoperability can enhance competition, financial inclusion, and consumer welfare by lowering barriers and expanding service access.
• Behavioral biases, search costs, and complex fee structures (e.g., slab vs. percentage pricing) can weaken the pro-competitive effects of interoperability, leading to high off-net fees and limited adoption.
• Network externalities and firm incentives may prevent interoperability emergence, necessitating regulatory interventions such as caps on fees or standardized data sharing.

Policy and Future Research

• Governments and regulators should promote interoperability through mandates where private incentives fail, while addressing issues like data privacy, interchange fees, and consumer education.
• Future research should focus on optimizing pricing models for interoperable systems, integrating data interoperability with other forms of payment interoperability, and evaluating the impact of policies like co-investment in network industries.

In conclusion, interoperability is crucial for advancing mobile payments and financial inclusion, but its effectiveness depends on addressing market failures, behavioral biases, and firm incentives through evidence-based policies.