News

Research: Mobile money transfer will grow but will face regulatory challenges

October 20, 2009

New data from Juniper Research says more than 500 million consumers globally will use mobile money-transfer services by 2014.

According to a press release from Juniper, the company's new report, "Mobile Money Transfer & Remittances: Markets, Forecasts & Strategies 2009-2014," found that most of these users will be in developing countries. The findings also suggest that new mobile money services may increasingly face political, regulatory and commercial challenges.

But Howard Wilcox, a senior analyst at Juniper Research and the report's lead author, says the mobile money-transfer will continue to be an emerging trend:

Every country has different regulatory structures and its own set of local market conditions that service operators need to plan around. Nonetheless, we see this as a growth market because of the ubiquity and convenience of mobiles, which offer realistic prospects of financial-service access for those without traditional banking services.

The report, which Juniper released today, also found that Africa and the Middle East, the Far East and China will be the leadings regions for national mobile money-transfer services by 2014.