MUNICH, Germany–A preview of what may come in the U.S.?
Telefonica, which offers mobile phone service in Germany, announced it is rolling out checking accounts, a free MasterCard and even instant (but small) loans. The company is partnering with Fidor, the digital bank, whose license it is using to enter financial services.
Telefonica has approximately 43 million customers (Fidor has approximately 100,000 customers in Germany). The new offerings are just being launched and analysts have been divided on whether they believe Telefonica will be able to penetrate the financial services market.
In the U.S., T-Mobile offered prepaid debit cards and money transfers beginning in 2014, but it exited the business lines earlier this year, citing the level of competition in financial services.
In Asia, however, a number of non-traditional financial players have been successful in financial services. Mobile services WeChat and Tencent, for instance, can be used to make payments numerous vendors.