## Mobile Money Spreads to Asia

_IMF Blog, September 30, 2019_

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**Canonical URL:** [Mobile Money Spreads to Asia](https://www.imf.org/en/blogs/articles/2019/09/30/mobile-money-spreads-to-asia)

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## Bibliographic details
- Authors: Esha Chhabra, Bidisha Das
- Published: September 30, 2019

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### Overview and significance
- Mobile money enables basic-phone users to make cash transfers, pay bills, and send money abroad without a bank account.
- Described as a "game-changing innovation" for the world’s poor because it is easy and cheap.
- The IMF’s Financial Access Survey shows growth in mobile money accounts across regions, with continued epicenter in sub-Saharan Africa and increasing takeoff in Asia.

### Regional uptake and trends
- South Asia has experienced an average annual growth rate of 46 percent in mobile money accounts over the past five years—the highest across all regions.
- Bangladesh, Indonesia, and Pakistan are cited as examples of countries in Asia experiencing high mobile money growth.
- Sub-Saharan Africa led early expansion after the launch of M-PESA in Kenya in 2007; Kenya, Tanzania, and Uganda saw rapid expansion and the region still leads in the number of mobile money accounts.
- In some sub-Saharan African countries, mobile money accounts now surpass bank accounts.
- Mobile money also continues to grow in some fragile states.

### Drivers of rapid uptake in new frontiers
- Large gaps in bank account ownership combined with high cellphone access:
  - Afghanistan example: only 200 out of 1,000 adults have bank accounts but more than 80 percent of the population has access to a cellular phone.
- Transaction growth example:
  - Value of mobile money transactions in Afghanistan grew by a factor of four in the past five years—to 1.2 percent of GDP in 2018.
- Distribution through agent networks:
  - Mobile network operators employ agents—typically small, local retail stores—to offer services in remote areas where banks have limited reach.
  - In Afghanistan, there are, on average, three mobile money agents compared to one or less automated teller machine or commercial bank branch every 1,000 square kilometres.
- Expansion of mobile money services helps meet significant pent-up demand for financial services.

### Policy implications and recommendations
- As mobile money becomes more pervasive, governments will need to create regulations to:
  - Protect new customers against fraud.
  - Mitigate liquidity risks—the inability of service providers to return funds on demand.

*Esha Chhabra, Bidisha Das — September 30, 2019 (Chart of the Week)*

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## References

- [Financial Access Survey](https://data.imf.org/?sk=E5DCAB7E-A5CA-4892-A6EA-598B5463A34C)
- [https://www.imf.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/eng-september-17-mobile-money.png](https://www.imf.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/eng-september-17-mobile-money.png)
- [2019 Financial Access Survey Results](https://www.imf.org/en/News/Articles/2019/09/27/pr19359-imf-releases-the-2019-financial-access-survey-results)
- [2019 Financial Access Survey Trends and Developments](http://data.imf.org/?sId=1460040555909&sk=E5DCAB7E-A5CA-4892-A6EA-598B5463A34C)

_Source: https://www.imf.org/en/blogs/articles/2019/09/30/mobile-money-spreads-to-asia_