Orange’s proposed launch of a full blown mobile bank in France at the start of 2017 will be a major milestone in the evolution of online financial services and will bring a number of regulatory and competitive issues to a climax. It raises the question of whether such a dominant multiple play operator should be allowed unfettered access to the banking market, since this could distort competition in financial services. And it could act as a disincentive for consumers to move to rival services in either financial or communications services, although that argument already holds to an extent within existing multiplay packages combining pay-TV, broadband and mobile. Orange is currently negotiating with French banking and insurance player Groupama with a…