Mobile financial services are being deployed in a manner that is similar to the `gold rush’ of the 1990s when internet banking services were rapidly deployed. The financial services `fourth screen’ – the ATM in your pocket – is giving mobile phone users the freedom to bank and to make payments on the move.

The report found that the mobile phone has enormous potential when used as a tool for financial services, and is only just at the beginning of a journey that is likely to revolutionise the sector in a similar manner that the ATM (Automated Telling Machine) did for the banking and cash business - which in contrast took some twenty years to fully develop.

The report categorises Mobile Financial Services (MFS) into two distinct areas; Mobile Banking and Mobile Payments with Mobile Payments predicted to generate almost $22bn of transactions by 2011 and be adopted by 204m mobile phone users . Whether from a migrant worker sending funds back to his/her family at home from overseas or a commuter paying for travel around the London tube system, there are many examples of the growth of MFS from all regions around the world.

Report author Alan Goode said: “A combination of increased user demand and a desire from all sections of the MFS ecosystem to deliver intelligent applications and services has created an atmosphere that is both creative and pragmatic.”