Juniper is “banking” on turning some heads with its newest report, aptly titled “Mobile Money Transfer & Remittances.”
According to Juniper’s latest research, the number of consumers using mobile handsets to make P2P (Person to Person) domestic money transfers will reach 340 million by 2016, up from 84 million last year.
The study in question reveals that following the success of Safaricom’s MPESA service in Kenya, both network operators and financial service providers in developing markets are increasingly using mobile distribution mechanisms as a means of enabling “underbanked” consumers to access financial services for the first time.
As the report observed, such services provide MNOs faced with flatlining revenues from voice and data services with the opportunity to deliver a service which can not only deliver a significant uplift to ARPU but which also acts as a customer retention tool. For financial service providers, they offer the potential of attracting new customers with the potential of subsequently upselling more sophisticated products such as insurance and savings accounts.
“Our primary interviews confirmed that in developing countries with previously unbanked customers, it is essential that the customer sign up process takes only a short time,” writes report author Dr Windsor Holden. “Customers are very easily discouraged from subscribing to services by overbearing KYC (Know Your Customer) requirements, particularly if this is their first contact with a financial service.”
The whitepaper, “Moving Money Via Mobile,” is now available for purchase from the Juniper website.
