Juniper Research: More than 100 million mobile users to make international money transfers by 2013

A new report by Juniper Research titled “Mobile Payment Markets: Mobile Money Transfers and Remittances 2008-2013″ forecasts that in excess of 100 million users globally will use their mobile phones to make international money transfers by 2013. These cross-border mobile money transfers are currently in their infancy, but are expected to gain traction over the next 2-3 years, especially on migration routes such as Philippines/Middle East and Mexico/USA.

The study explores how mobile money transfer will transform the ability of the “underbanked” population and migrant workers to make remittances, using their mobile phones as mobile wallets. As a matter of fact, report author Howard Wilcox argues that the mobile phone will become a vital enabler in developing countries because often many more people have phones than have bank accounts.

Highlights from the report:

• Mobile international transfers are forecast to grow in frequency as users become more accustomed to the process, exceeding one per month by 2013 on average globally.
• The opportunity for companies providing national and international money transfer services is forecast to exceed $5 billion by 2013.
• The top 3 regions (Western Europe, North America and Africa & Middle East) will represent over 75% of the global international mobile money transfer gross transaction value by 2013.

The report provides six year regional forecasts of mobile money transfers and remittances, providing data on subscriber take-up, transaction sizes and volumes for both national and international transactions… As always, more information is available on Juniper Research’s website.