More than 100 million users worldwide will use their mobile phone to make international money transfers by 2013, according to a new analysis by Juniper Research.
Cross-border mobile money transfers is a new trend, but it is expected to gain traction during the net couple of years, especially on migration routes such as Philippines/Middle East and Mexico/ USA, according to Juniper.
“The vast increase in migrant workers globally has fuelled the number of remittances being sent home to friends and families regularly,” said Howard Wilcox, author of the report. “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 emphasizes the importance that is attached to this across the mobile industry as a whole.”
The top three regions for international transfers by 2013 will be Western Europe, North America and Africa & Middle East, according to the report.
