A new report from Juniper Research (News - Alert) predicted that, by 2013, more than 100 million global users will be performing financial transactions using mobile phones.

 

In particular, Juniper sees mobile money transfers already growing in popularity, especially in areas of the world classified as migration routes (e.g. the Philippines, the Middle East and the Mexico/U.S. border).

 

The report from Juniper provided six-year regional forecasts of mobile money transfers and remittances, including data on subscriber take-up, transaction sizes and volumes for both national (domestic) and international transactions.

 

The study explores how mobile money transfer will transform the ability of the 'underbanked' population and migrant workers to make remittances, using their phones as mobile wallets.

 

Report author Howard Wilcox explained: “The vast increase in migrant workers globally has fuelled the number of remittances being sent home to friends and families regularly. The mobile phone will become a vital enabler in developing countries because often many more people have phones than have bank accounts. The GSM Association Mobile Money Transfer global initiative emphasises the importance that is attached to this across the mobile industry as a whole.”

 

The report also indicated that if money transfer services and vendors garner resources to make their services available via mobile phones, they stand to reap big rewards as this market grows. Money transfer services are expected to generate revenue of $5 billion by 2013.

 

Juniper’s report predicted that, as people become more familiar with the process, by 2013 users will perform an average of more than one mobile transfer per month. The hottest markets will most likely be Western Europe, North America, Africa and the Middle East, collectively representing more than 75 percent of global international money transfers when measured by gross transaction value.