{"id":8839,"date":"2015-05-13T18:05:48","date_gmt":"2015-05-13T18:05:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.gsma.com\/newsroom\/?p=8839"},"modified":"2025-11-12T09:37:18","modified_gmt":"2025-11-12T09:37:18","slug":"gsma-report-latin-america-caribbean-fastest-growth-in-mobile-financial-services-globally","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.gsma.com\/newsroom\/press-release\/gsma-report-latin-america-caribbean-fastest-growth-in-mobile-financial-services-globally\/","title":{"rendered":"NEW GSMA REPORT FINDS THAT LATIN AMERICA AND THE CARIBBEAN HAVE FASTEST GROWTH IN MOBILE FINANCIAL SERVICES GLOBALLY"},"content":{"rendered":"<p align=\"center\"><em>Region Experiencing 50 Per Cent Growth Rate in New Registered Mobile Money Accounts, With 37 Services Live in 19 Countries <\/em><\/p>\n<p><strong>Rio De Janeiro<\/strong>: At the Mobile 360 Latin America event today, the GSMA issued the report, \u2018Mobile Financial Services in Latin America and the Caribbean: state of play, commercial models and regulatory approaches\u2019, which examines the current state of mobile financial services across Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) region. The report outlines important advances in mobile money adoption in the region, showing that nearly two thirds of markets have at least one live mobile money service. Today, there are a total of 37 mobile money services, accounting for roughly 14.9 million registered mobile money accounts, in 19 countries<sup>1<\/sup> in the region. This includes seven new services launched in Brazil, Colombia, the Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Panama and Peru since 2014.<\/p>\n<p>The report provides an analysis of commercial models being employed in different markets; discusses the regulatory evolution that has helped shape the industry; and investigates demographics and many other market factors that play a critical role in the development and growth of new and successful commercial models for mobile money.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cGreat progress has been made in deepening financial inclusion in Latin America and the Caribbean over the last three years,\u201d said Sebastian Cabello, Head, GSMA Latin America. \u201cThe region has seen a major increase in the number of adults with bank accounts, however, approximately half of all adults in LAC still remain unbanked. Mobile money services are a powerful tool for expanding financial access in developing markets and will play a critical role in continuing to build a healthy digital financial ecosystem in the region.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The report underscores that while there is no standardised commercial model for mobile money services, an open and level playing field, where regulation allows both banks and non-banks to provide mobile money services, is essential for mobile money to succeed. In this context and bolstered by the contributions of banks and mobile operators in select markets, LAC has emerged as a strong mobile money newcomer. Last year the region had the fastest growth in new registered mobile money accounts in the world<sup>2<\/sup>, with a 50 per cent growth rate. A greater number of deployments are also reaching scale, with three mobile money services crossing the 1 million active customer milestone as of April 2015. Moreover, El Salvador, Honduras and Paraguay are amongst the top 15 markets globally in terms of the proportion of adults actively using mobile money.<\/p>\n<p>Of particular note, as of December 2014, over a quarter of all mobile money transaction volumes in LAC were from transactions involving third parties, such as bill payments, bulk payments and merchant payments, up from just 14 per cent in 2012. By comparison, in East Africa, the home of the world\u2019s most successful mobile money deployments, only six per cent of all transaction volumes were ecosystem transactions. This is particularly important in the LAC region because 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.<\/p>\n<p>Cabello continued, \u201cWidespread adoption and usage of mobile financial services in LAC still has a long way to go, but we are encouraged by the growth of successful deployments in the region, and the range of business models being adopted. Competition is clearly heating up, and with it, the level of investment and interest from the private sector.\u201d<\/p>\n<p align=\"center\">-ENDS-<\/p>\n<p><strong>Notes to Editor<\/strong><br \/>\nThe report can be seen at: https:\/\/www.gsma.com\/solutions-and-impact\/connectivity-for-good\/mobile-for-development\/mobile-financial-services-in-lac<br \/>\n<sup>1<\/sup> GSMA, April 2015, \u201cMobile money tracker\u201d.<br \/>\n<sup>2<\/sup> GSMA, 2014, \u201cState of the industry report\u201d.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Translations:<\/strong><br \/>\n<a href=\"https:\/\/www.gsma.com\/newsroom\/wp-content\/uploads\/\/SPANISH-Mobile-Money-Services-FINAL.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Spanish<\/a><br \/>\n<a href=\"https:\/\/www.gsma.com\/newsroom\/wp-content\/uploads\/\/PORTUGUESE-Mobile-Money-Services-FINAL.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Portuguese<\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>About the GSMA<\/strong><br \/>\nThe GSMA represents the interests of mobile operators worldwide, uniting nearly 800 operators with more than 250 companies in the broader mobile ecosystem, including handset and device makers, software companies, equipment providers and Internet companies, as well as organisations in adjacent industry sectors. The GSMA also produces industry-leading events such as Mobile World Congress, Mobile World Congress Shanghai and the Mobile 360 Series conferences.<\/p>\n<p>For more information, please visit the GSMA corporate website at <a href=\"https:\/\/www.gsma.com\/\">www.gsma.com<\/a>. Follow the GSMA on Twitter: @GSMA.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Media Contacts: <\/strong><br \/>\nFor the GSMA<br \/>\nCharlie Meredith-Hardy<br \/>\n+44 7917 298428<br \/>\nCMeredith-Hardy@webershandwick.com<\/p>\n<p>GSMA Press Office<br \/>\n<a href=\"mailto:pressoffice@gsma.com\">pressoffice@gsma.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Region Experiencing 50 Per Cent Growth Rate in New Registered Mobile Money Accounts, With 37 Services Live in 19 Countries Rio De Janeiro: At the Mobile 360 Latin America event today, the GSMA issued the report, \u2018Mobile Financial Services in Latin America and the Caribbean: state of play, commercial models and regulatory approaches\u2019, which examines [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":8902,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"algolia_discover_type":[6627],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v22.0 (Yoast SEO v22.6) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>NEW GSMA REPORT FINDS THAT LATIN AMERICA AND THE CARIBBEAN HAVE FASTEST GROWTH IN MOBILE FINANCIAL SERVICES GLOBALLY - Newsroom<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.gsma.com\/newsroom\/press-release\/gsma-report-latin-america-caribbean-fastest-growth-in-mobile-financial-services-globally\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"NEW GSMA REPORT FINDS THAT LATIN AMERICA AND THE CARIBBEAN HAVE FASTEST GROWTH IN MOBILE FINANCIAL SERVICES GLOBALLY\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Region Experiencing 50 Per Cent Growth Rate in New Registered Mobile Money Accounts, With 37 Services Live in 19 Countries Rio De Janeiro: At the Mobile 360 Latin America event today, the GSMA issued the report, \u2018Mobile Financial Services in Latin America and the Caribbean: state of play, commercial models and regulatory approaches\u2019, which examines [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.gsma.com\/newsroom\/press-release\/gsma-report-latin-america-caribbean-fastest-growth-in-mobile-financial-services-globally\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Newsroom\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/gsma\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2015-05-13T18:05:48+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-11-12T09:37:18+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.gsma.com\/newsroom\/wp-content\/uploads\/\/650-phone-dollars1.jpg?fit=650%2C320&ssl=1\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"650\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"320\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"webteam\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@GSMA\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@GSMA\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"webteam\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Estimated reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"NEW GSMA REPORT FINDS THAT LATIN AMERICA AND THE CARIBBEAN HAVE FASTEST GROWTH IN MOBILE FINANCIAL SERVICES GLOBALLY - Newsroom","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.gsma.com\/newsroom\/press-release\/gsma-report-latin-america-caribbean-fastest-growth-in-mobile-financial-services-globally\/","og_locale":"en_GB","og_type":"article","og_title":"NEW GSMA REPORT FINDS THAT LATIN AMERICA AND THE CARIBBEAN HAVE FASTEST GROWTH IN MOBILE FINANCIAL SERVICES GLOBALLY","og_description":"Region Experiencing 50 Per Cent Growth Rate in New Registered Mobile Money Accounts, With 37 Services Live in 19 Countries Rio De Janeiro: At the Mobile 360 Latin America event today, the GSMA issued the report, \u2018Mobile Financial Services in Latin America and the Caribbean: state of play, commercial models and regulatory approaches\u2019, which examines [&hellip;]","og_url":"https:\/\/www.gsma.com\/newsroom\/press-release\/gsma-report-latin-america-caribbean-fastest-growth-in-mobile-financial-services-globally\/","og_site_name":"Newsroom","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/gsma\/","article_published_time":"2015-05-13T18:05:48+00:00","article_modified_time":"2025-11-12T09:37:18+00:00","og_image":[{"width":"650","height":"320","url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.gsma.com\/newsroom\/wp-content\/uploads\/\/650-phone-dollars1.jpg?fit=650%2C320&ssl=1","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"webteam","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@GSMA","twitter_site":"@GSMA","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"webteam","Estimated reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.gsma.com\/newsroom\/press-release\/gsma-report-latin-america-caribbean-fastest-growth-in-mobile-financial-services-globally\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.gsma.com\/newsroom\/press-release\/gsma-report-latin-america-caribbean-fastest-growth-in-mobile-financial-services-globally\/"},"author":{"name":"webteam","@id":"https:\/\/www.gsma.com\/newsroom\/#\/schema\/person\/5f710fedc8509b0c9c60af69f66b28e3"},"headline":"NEW GSMA REPORT FINDS THAT LATIN AMERICA AND THE CARIBBEAN HAVE FASTEST GROWTH IN MOBILE FINANCIAL SERVICES GLOBALLY","datePublished":"2015-05-13T18:05:48+00:00","dateModified":"2025-11-12T09:37:18+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.gsma.com\/newsroom\/press-release\/gsma-report-latin-america-caribbean-fastest-growth-in-mobile-financial-services-globally\/"},"wordCount":711,"commentCount":0,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.gsma.com\/newsroom\/#organization"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.gsma.com\/newsroom\/press-release\/gsma-report-latin-america-caribbean-fastest-growth-in-mobile-financial-services-globally\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.gsma.com\/newsroom\/wp-content\/uploads\/\/650-phone-dollars1.jpg","articleSection":["Press Release"],"inLanguage":"en-GB","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/www.gsma.com\/newsroom\/press-release\/gsma-report-latin-america-caribbean-fastest-growth-in-mobile-financial-services-globally\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.gsma.com\/newsroom\/press-release\/gsma-report-latin-america-caribbean-fastest-growth-in-mobile-financial-services-globally\/","url":"https:\/\/www.gsma.com\/newsroom\/press-release\/gsma-report-latin-america-caribbean-fastest-growth-in-mobile-financial-services-globally\/","name":"NEW GSMA REPORT FINDS THAT LATIN AMERICA AND THE CARIBBEAN HAVE FASTEST GROWTH IN MOBILE FINANCIAL SERVICES GLOBALLY - Newsroom","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.gsma.com\/newsroom\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.gsma.com\/newsroom\/press-release\/gsma-report-latin-america-caribbean-fastest-growth-in-mobile-financial-services-globally\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.gsma.com\/newsroom\/press-release\/gsma-report-latin-america-caribbean-fastest-growth-in-mobile-financial-services-globally\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.gsma.com\/newsroom\/wp-content\/uploads\/\/650-phone-dollars1.jpg","datePublished":"2015-05-13T18:05:48+00:00","dateModified":"2025-11-12T09:37:18+00:00","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.gsma.com\/newsroom\/press-release\/gsma-report-latin-america-caribbean-fastest-growth-in-mobile-financial-services-globally\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-GB","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.gsma.com\/newsroom\/press-release\/gsma-report-latin-america-caribbean-fastest-growth-in-mobile-financial-services-globally\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-GB","@id":"https:\/\/www.gsma.com\/newsroom\/press-release\/gsma-report-latin-america-caribbean-fastest-growth-in-mobile-financial-services-globally\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.gsma.com\/newsroom\/wp-content\/uploads\/\/650-phone-dollars1.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.gsma.com\/newsroom\/wp-content\/uploads\/\/650-phone-dollars1.jpg","width":"650","height":"320"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.gsma.com\/newsroom\/press-release\/gsma-report-latin-america-caribbean-fastest-growth-in-mobile-financial-services-globally\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.gsma.com\/newsroom\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"NEW GSMA REPORT FINDS THAT LATIN AMERICA AND THE CARIBBEAN HAVE FASTEST GROWTH IN MOBILE FINANCIAL SERVICES GLOBALLY"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.gsma.com\/newsroom\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.gsma.com\/newsroom\/","name":"Newsroom","description":"","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.gsma.com\/newsroom\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.gsma.com\/newsroom\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-GB"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/www.gsma.com\/newsroom\/#organization","name":"GSMA","url":"https:\/\/www.gsma.com\/newsroom\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-GB","@id":"https:\/\/www.gsma.com\/newsroom\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.gsma.com\/newsroom\/wp-content\/uploads\/\/GSMA_logo_colour_web.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.gsma.com\/newsroom\/wp-content\/uploads\/\/GSMA_logo_colour_web.jpg","width":1000,"height":1000,"caption":"GSMA"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.gsma.com\/newsroom\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/gsma\/","https:\/\/x.com\/GSMA","https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/gsmaonline\/","https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/company\/12380","https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/user\/GSMAOnline"]},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.gsma.com\/newsroom\/#\/schema\/person\/5f710fedc8509b0c9c60af69f66b28e3","name":"webteam"}]}},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.gsma.com\/newsroom\/wp-content\/uploads\/\/650-phone-dollars1.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"featured_image_url":"https:\/\/www.gsma.com\/newsroom\/wp-content\/uploads\/\/650-phone-dollars1.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gsma.com\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8839"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gsma.com\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gsma.com\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gsma.com\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gsma.com\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8839"}],"version-history":[{"count":18,"href":"https:\/\/www.gsma.com\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8839\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":24735,"href":"https:\/\/www.gsma.com\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8839\/revisions\/24735"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gsma.com\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8902"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gsma.com\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8839"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gsma.com\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8839"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gsma.com\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8839"},{"taxonomy":"algolia_discover_type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gsma.com\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/algolia_discover_type?post=8839"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}