Banks find it an unprofitable proposition to serve people who make less than three dollars per day
In many developing countries it's common for a person to have a mobile phone but not a bank account. In fact, more than 1 billion people fit this description, and the number is only likely to increase. To that end, many companies are considering how to give residents access to banking services via their handsets. The GSM Association predicts that by 2012, nearly 300 million of the previously "unbanked" will be using some form of mobile banking.
The success of M-PESA
This article was provided with permission from Harvard Business School Working Knowledge.