Title: Window on the Unbanked: Mobile Money in the Philippines
Author: Mark Pickens
Pages: 4 pp.
Publisher: CGAP: Consultative Group to Assist the Poor
Date (published): 12/01/2010
Date (accessed): 15/01/2010
Type of information: research brief
Language: English
On-line access: yes (pdf)
Abstract:
In 2009, CGAP teamed up with the GSM Association (GSMA) and McKinsey to measure the global market for financial services delivered via mobile phones (mobile money) in 147 developing countries. This is the first study of mobile money and the unbanked—those without access to formal financial services—estimated to be almost 4 billion worldwide.

The Philippines provides a window onto the complex financial lives of low-income families. Three out of four Filipinos are unbanked (Demirgüç-Kunt, Beck, and Honohan 2008). The country hosts two of the earliest pioneers in mobile money—Smart’s Smart Money launched in 2001 and Globe’s GCASH launched in 2004. CGAP, GSMA, and McKinsey gathered data on 1,042 unbanked consumers in the Philippines, split between mobile money users and nonusers.