Mobile banking set to boom

Mobile banking is set for rapid growth over the next three years with the number of global mobile banking transactions predicted to ramp up from 2.7 billion in 2007 to 37 billion by 2011, according to analyst house Juniper Research.

The analyst forecasts 41.5 billion mobile financial service (MFS) transactions will be made by the end of 2011, with services being driven by rapid consumer adoption especially by mobile users in developing countries who do not currently have access to any form of banking, and among 13- to 18-year-olds in developed countries who are too young to access financial services in other ways.

In its report, Mobile Financial Services: Banking & Payment Markets 2007-2011, Juniper forecasts there will be an additional 517 million mobile users of MFS over that four year period, with a total of 612 million users globally generating more than $587bn worth of financial transactions by 2011.

China and the Far East are forecast to be the biggest converts to mobile finance with more than 250 million MFS users by 2011, according to the report.

Juniper also predicts bespoke payment applications for remittance purposes will be popular. The analyst said it had found a strong desire from the MFS sector for co-operation in order to create non-silo services that work together.

However the analyst warned strict financial industry legislation may hold back market growth as it said designing and implementing alternative MFS payment schemes which adhere to financial services regulation can be costly in time and money.