Awareness and Interest in Mobile Money Services Grows in Developing World

Visa today announced the results of a survey showing rising awareness of mobile money services among consumers in developing countries. The company's mobile money study surveyed nearly 2,500 consumers, merchants and mobile money agents in Bangladesh, Pakistan, India, Nigeria, Ghana and Indonesia. Almost 90 percent of those surveyed expressed high interest in services that allow users to make payments and send funds through their mobile device, a statement released by Visa today said.

[See Related: Moving Forward Mobile Payments]

Consumers surveyed showed the most interest in using mobile money services to send money to their families (81 percent), pay utilities (56 percent) and put money away in savings (52 percent. The biggest barrios the study found to wider adoption of such services in the developing world were ease of use (cited by 64 percent of the respondents), followed by a lack of trust in providers and agents (55 percent) and lack of interoperability with between mobile money services (28 percent).

Jonathan Camhi has been an associate editor with Bank Systems & Technology since 2012. He previously worked as a freelance journalist in New York City covering politics, health and immigration, and has a master's degree from the City University of New York's Graduate School ... View Full Bio