Analysts at the Consultative Group to Assist the Poor (CGAP) say mobile financial services in developing countries could be worth $5 billion (just over £3 million) by 2012, accounting for a fifth of all mobile users in those countries.
CGAP also said the number of people with access to a mobile phone but no bank account would to rise to 1.7 billion in 2012, up from around a billion people today.
[Sources: BBC News; Reuters via Yahoo]