Earlier this month, MMU published a report on the state of mobile financial services in Latin America & the Caribbean (LAC). To further illustrate the findings of that report, today we are publishing an infographic on the current state of mobile money availability, adoption, accessibility and usage in the region. The infographic also provides a visual representation of LAC’s current regulatory environment.
As of May 2015, there are 37 live mobile money services across 17 markets in the region, and 18 further planned services. Latin America & the Caribbean saw the fastest growth in mobile money adoption in 2014. The region now accounts for 14.9 million registered mobile money accounts, of which 6.2 million are active on a 90-day basis. The customer active rate in the region is 42% – 7.5 percentage points greater than the global average. Today, we also see more services achieving scale – 5 services in the region have more than one million registered customer accounts and 3 services have more than 1 million active customer accounts.
El Salvador, Honduras and Paraguay all feature in the top 15 markets globally for adults actively using mobile money – this highlights the successful evolution of mobile money in the region.
In terms of access to mobile money, in 2014, the number of registered agents grew by 129% to nearly 63,000. The number of active 30-day agents grew by 80% to 29,000 last year. Uneven growth in registered and active agents caused the agent activity rate to drop in the region – though this can be explained, in part, by large registration drives to enlist agents, which is common in nascent mobile money markets. More mobile money services are integrated with existing banking infrastructure in Latin America & the Caribbean than in any other region – 74% of services are integrated with existing ATM networks or banking correspondents for cash-in cash-out. In addition, a third of services in LAC offer companion cards alongside the traditional mobile money account. This is usually a debit or pre-paid card tied to a customer’s mobile money account.
Interestingly, ecosystem transactions (transactions that involve third parties, e.g. bill payment, merchant payment or bulk payment) already make up 27% of transaction volumes in Latin America & the Caribbean. This is exciting given that ecosystem transactions are critical to realising the full potential of mobile financial services, although they are traditionally the most difficult products to gain traction in a mobile money market.
Looking at the regulatory map of the region, we see that, as of April 2015, six of 19 (32%) mobile money markets in LAC have an enabling environment for mobile money, up from only two in 2012 (Nicaragua and Peru). By comparison, ten of 13 (77%) East African mobile money markets and 47 of 89 (53%) live mobile money markets globally are considered ‘enabling’. More enabling regulatory frameworks and greater regulatory certainty across the region could boost investment, promote competition among different business models, and introduce new products and services—all of which could greatly benefit consumers.
Please find more qualitative insights about the LAC region in our recently published paper, Mobile Financial Services in Latin America & the Caribbean: State of play, commercial models, and regulatory approaches.