Visualising the mobile money industry in Latin America & the Caribbean

Today we’re launching a new infographic about the progression of the mobile money industry in Latin America and the Caribbean.

Half of all adults in the region are excluded from formal financial systems. Mobile money is already helping to change this landscape, and has the potential to truly transform access to financial services across the region. As of today, there are 37 live mobile money services across 17 countries in Latin America and the Caribbean. A variety of players—including mobile operators, banks, microfinance institutions and small dedicated financial service providers—are offering these mobile money services.

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As of December 2015, there were 17.3 million registered mobile money accounts in the region. Whilst this still represents a small proportion of the adult population overall, we see mobile money becoming very successful in a number of markets across the region. This year, both El Salvador and Honduras feature in the top 20 markets globally for mobile money account penetration amongst the adult population.

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Two unique characteristics of mobile money in Latin American & the Caribbean are:

  • The average customer activity rates are higher than in other regions like Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia, meaning that customers who register for a service are more likely to remain regular users.
  • The payments ecosystem is more developed than in any other region globally, meaning that mobile money here is not just a ‘send money home’ story, but rather is helping a variety of institutions and organisations to digitise their client payments, increasing efficiency and transparency in the process.

 
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As regulators have become more aware of the positive role mobile operators can have on the financial inclusion landscape, regulation has generally become more enabling, allowing non-banks to provide financial services alongside traditional banking. Today, six markets in the region have enabling regulation – Bolivia, Brazil, Guyana, Nicaragua, Paraguay, Peru. Positive regulatory changes have also been made this year in Colombia, El Salvador and Honduras.

View the infographic

Baixe o infográfico em português

Descargue el infográfico en español

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