Digital Lifescapes

Credit scoring is a method that lenders use to predict the probability a borrower or counter-party will default on loans, or incur additional charges for repayment -- also known as measuring credit worthiness. The method is a key tool in making credit affordable for individuals and businesses. It links credit products to risk potential, connecting borrowers to secondary capital markets and increasing the amount of funds available. This securing process establishes risk predictability dependent on a number of factors, determined by financial indicators and other publicly available information reported by the credit bureaus. Credit Score Market Development According to the latest worldwide market study by Juniper Research, they now forecast credit scoring services will grow by 67 percent to $44 billion by 2028. Juniper anticipates that emerging markets will experience the greatest growth -- projecting the African & Middle Eastern region to grow by 117 percent over the forecast period...

Mobile Money is the most basic form of Mobile Financial Services (MFS) in emerging markets, which is comprised of a variety of offerings. It's a good model, due to the lack of infrastructure that supports access to services for the un-banked population of numerous nations. Where building and sustaining traditional financial institutions is very costly, landline telecom and mobile network operators offer a near-ubiquitous and reliable alternative to banking establishments. The concept is reliant on mobile handsets, taking the form of simple domestic money transfers, or micro-finance services that involve risk decision elements, such as lending and insurance. Mobile Money Market Development According to the latest market study by Juniper Research, the total value of mobile money transactions in emerging markets will reach $2 trillion by 2027 -- that's an increase of over $500 billion from 2023. Growing by 33 percent, the market is being driven by the transition to Payments-as-a-P...

The COVID-19 pandemic has been a growth driver for the transformation of remittance services, partly due to the closure of traditional money transfer agent locations as part of numerous national market lockdowns. Many of the major domestic and international remittance providers -- both those with physical branches and agent networks -- and digital-only players have posted significant growth in their online customer base during 2020. In contrast, consumer cash transactions fell sharply in 2020. Although there may be a return to cash-use post-pandemic, digital remittance use will likely become a permanent trend in customer behavior. Online Instant Payments Market Development According to the latest worldwide market study by Juniper Research, digital domestic money transfer transaction values will rise from $2 trillion in 2020 to $3.4 trillion in 2025 -- driven in part by the rapid growth of mobile money transfers. Mobile transactions will represent an 89 percent share of total global tra...

The advancement of digital Money Transfer Operators (MTOs) continued during the past year, with more offerings, better marketing and an improved international scale. One important way that savvy MTOs are accelerating their transaction growth is by pursuing new business partnerships. Moreover, the increased use of mobile phones for money transfers is driven by the launch of apps from established MTOs, as well as new offerings from digital MTOs. Mobile subscribers sending international payments are forecast to reach 66 million in 2024 -- that's up from 41.2 million in 2019. Digital Money Transfer Market Development According to the latest worldwide market study by Juniper Research, global international digital money transfer transaction volume will reach 2 billion by 2024 -- that's up from 1.1 billion in 2019. The new research found that both online and mobile channels are achieving strong growth, with fintech disruptors and market incumbents rapidly gaining money transfe...

The Global Networked Economy is fueled by the growing adoption and application of digital commerce innovations. In many instances, digital commerce enables wholesale supplier or retailer customers to purchase goods and services through an interactive and self-service experience. It includes the people, processes and technologies to execute the offering of development content, analytics, promotion, pricing, customer acquisition and retention, and customer experience at all touchpoints throughout the customer buying journey. That's one view of the evolving eCommerce landscape. Digital Commerce Market Development Industry analysts also segment the overall digital commerce market into payments, banking and gambling as its principal segments, which are then further broken down into their respective sub-segments. It's important to appreciate that these segments are not mutually exclusive and necessarily intersect with one other to varying extents. Boundaries between the segme...

Fintech vendors will continue to target more international financial service applications. The World Bank estimates that official money transfer flows to low- and middle-income countries reached $529 billion in 2018 -- that's an increase of 9.6 percent over the previous record high of $483 billion in 2017. Global remittances, which include flows to high-income countries, reached $689 billion in 2018 -- that's up from $633 billion in 2017. In 2019, remittance flows to low- and middle-income countries are expected to reach $550 billion, to become their largest source of external financing. Money Transfer Market Development According to the latest worldwide market study by Juniper Research, the volume of domestic money transfers via mobile phones will exceed 203 billion in 2024 -- that's up from 130 billion in 2019. Domestic person-to-person (P2P) payments will drive this growth, accounting for 80 percent of all domestic transfers in 2024. According to the Juniper asse...

The World Bank estimates that remittance flows to low- and middle-income countries reached $529 billion in 2018, an increase of 9.6 percent over the previous record high of $483 billion in 2017. All global remittances -- including money transfer flows to high-income countries -- reached $689 billion in 2018. Mobile and online (digital) money transfer offerings will continue to transform the market. New technologies, such as blockchain, will further accelerate the trend. Money Transfer Market Development According to the latest worldwide market study by Juniper Research, international digital remittances will reach $525 billion by 2024 -- that's up from an estimated $332 in 2019. The mobile channel will become increasingly popular; accounting for 41 percent of international digital money transfers by volume in 2024 -- that's up from 33 percent in 2019. Meanwhile, blockchain-based payments have the potential to increase digital payments further, as the technology has a ...

The money transfer segment of the commercial financial services sector is vast, with transactions taking place on both a domestic and international cross-border basis. A recent Juniper Research market study found that global cross-border B2B money transfers totalled $136 trillion in 2017. Yet, to date, the B2B money transfer industry has not experienced the start-up innovation and disruption like other areas in the finance and commerce space. That being said, we can anticipate that 2018 will be pivotal, as more fintech entrepreneurs pursue this previously untapped opportunity. B2B Money Transfer Market Development New study findings have concluded that the cross-border B2B money transfer market is ripe for disruption, as new technologies and legislative changes redefine traditional banking practices across the globe. Cross-border B2B transactions will exceed $218 trillion by 2022, up from $150 trillion this year. In comparison, global GDP was placed at just $77 trillion last ye...

Across a variety of use cases -- online and offline, retail and remittance -- mobile is becoming the key channel for digital payments. However, as the market for mobile payments matured, it has become increasingly difficult for financial service providers across the value-chain to differentiate themselves. Activities which were once the domain of a few niche companies are becoming crowded, with both established payment industry leaders keen to expand their availability and an ever increasing number of pure-play digital operators. In each case, the players face distinct pain points -- but each new disruption can be either an opportunity or a challenge. Digital Payment Market Development A recent market study by Juniper Research highlights the increasing dominance of Chinese companies in the evolving digital payments sector, with vendors such as Alibaba, Tencent and UnionPay seeking to increase their revenues via international expansion. According to their latest research, digita...

The banking and payments arena is now greatly influenced by mobile device adoption. Moreover, retail spend continues to migrate from the physical storefront to the online checkout, enabled in part by mobile internet usage. Money transfers, traditionally dominated by the international service operators -- such as Western Union and MoneyGram -- have been disrupted by the emergence of new fintech payment service providers. Furthermore, in emerging markets, mobile network service providers have become a key enabler of financial services inclusion. Besides, the emergence of new technologies are about to transform this market, yet again. While most of the original focus around cryptocurrency was on its usage as an alternative to fiat currencies, attention has shifted to the technologies that underpin them. It 's now believed that blockchain will have a significant role to play in the future evolution of transaction settlement solutions. Money Transfer Market Development The va...

Across the globe, the mobile phone is one of the most important technology advancements for developing nations, as an enabler of economic growth. In fact, many of these emerging countries have already seen a rapid adoption of mobile remittance. Very basic money transfer services can help fuel a local economy. According to the World Bank, there are 80 countries where less than 50 percent of the adult population has a bank account. Mobile money transfers can provide financial inclusion for those un-banked and under-banked citizens. The total transaction value of Mobile Financial Services in emerging markets  -- including domestic money transfers, deposits on loans, insurance products, and savings accounts -- will approach $500 billion in 2021, that's up from an estimated $198 billion in 2016. Mobile Money Service Market Development Juniper Research discovered that by introducing insurance offerings, mobile network operators had the opportunity to substantially reduce custo...

We're seeing a lot of new investment in Fintech start-up companies, and for good reason -- money transfers and mobile payments are a huge upside opportunity. In 2015, international remittances totaled $582 billion, with approximately $440 billion remitted to developing countries. Besides, the value of domestic money transfers are forecast to reach $520 billion in mobile transactions by 2018 -- that's up nearly 200 percent from an estimated $178 billion last year. Money Transfer Market Development Typically, person to person (P2P) domestic transfers show higher usage in developing markets -- including M-Pesa, Airtel Money, Orange Money and MTN Mobile Money -- supplemented by users making social transfers in developed markets via services such as Venmo and WeChat. However, according to the Juniper assessment, the bulk of transfer activity is currently occurring via WeChat and Alipay within China, with growth fostered by ‘red envelope’ promotions at the Lunar New Year. ...

The emergence of Bitcoin, an alternative cryptocurrency, has been a catalyst of change for the financial services sector. A significant amount of these currencies has been traded across the globe on the dedicated exchanges, while some forward-thinking merchants already support Bitcoin as a payment option. However, with a relatively small base of current users, attention is turning away from Bitcoin towards the wider potential of the Blockchain technology that underpins them. Several traditional banks are now testing the core blockchain technology as a means of reducing settlement costs, while a host of other use cases -- i.e. smart contracts and ID verification -- are also seeing their first deployments. Blockchain Application Market Development Meanwhile, blockchain technology will likely have a key role to play in the future of transaction settlements. Many of the legacy 'clearing houses' currently process many millions of commodities derivatives and securities transact...

There's a significant mobile technology innovation that was originated where you might least expect it. To date, the most meaningful new financial services offering that was created specifically for delivery over mobile communication networks has occurred outside of the most mature markets. Moreover, as mCommerce via smartphones finally starts to gain traction across a few developed regions, a number of markets in sub-Saharan Africa and emerging Asia have already experienced a different kind of mobile money revolution. The basic mobile phone has enabled individuals in these highly under-banked markets to achieve first-time financial freedom, to the extent that by the end of 2014 more than 15 countries had more people with 'mobile money' accounts than those that had traditional bank accounts. According to the latest market study by Juniper Research, the number of mobile money transfers is expected to increase by nearly 150 percent in 2015 to more than 13 billion transa...

As mCommerce services continue to gain new users across developing regions -- such as sub-Saharan Africa and emerging Asia -- the early-adopter nations have experienced a mobile money revolution that has empowered the local economies. While in some early-adopter markets -- such as Kenya and Uganda -- mobile money usage already occurs across more than 50 percent of the adult population, there are still significant sections of the un-banked population it has yet to reach. According to the latest market study by Juniper Research, mobile network service providers are now benefiting from the boom in mobile money transfer services -- with $2 billion in revenues forecast for this year and $4 billion annually by 2018. Market Development in Africa The new research points to the African continent as the leading mCommerce market. In fact, several regional mobile network operators -- such as Vodacom Tanzania and MTN Uganda -- are now generating more than 10 percent of their revenues from m...

The mobile communication channel has proven to enable the development of financial services in a way that is not dependent upon the existing traditional commercial infrastructure in a country. Key benefits are all associated with the ability to provide new services while avoiding the usual investment in establishing physical banking facilities -- particularly in emerging markets and developing nations. As a result, international remittances via mobile phones will exceed $10 billion for the first time this year, according to the latest global market study by Juniper Research. However, their comprehensive assessment found that the cost and complexity of regulating cash transfers had led many mobile network service providers to focus exclusively on airtime top-ups. According to Juniper, only a handful of players -- such as eServGlobal HomeSend, along with established money transfer organizations Western Union and Moneygram -- were seeing significant traction on mobile devices. I...

Over the past three years, mobile money services have blossomed across a range of markets in developing Asia and sub-Saharan Africa. Encouraged by the astonishing success of Safaricom’s M-PESA in Kenya, other mobile network operators have sought to emulate it by deploying their own range of transfer and remittance options, thereby reaping substantial rewards from their deployments. Nearly 400 million mobile phone users worldwide are expected to use their handsets for mobile money transfer by 2018, that's up from just under 150 million this year, according to the latest market study by Juniper Research. Growth is expected to be driven primarily by deployments of domestic money transfer services, with multinational network operators increasingly launching products on a group-wide rather than an ad hoc basis. Findings from the market study stressed the need for mobile network service providers to ensure that support infrastructure -- including an extensive agent network -- neede...