Mobile payment services expected to be mainstream in four years

By CFO Innovation Asia Staff | Jul 18, 2011

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The 2011 KPMG Mobile Payments Outlook survey found that 83% of the respondents believe mobile payments will be mainstream within four years, compared to only nine% who see them as mainstream today.

In fact, 46% believe mobile payments will be mainstream within two years.

KPMG's global survey interviewed 970 executives in the financial services, technology, telecommunications and retail industries.

Survey respondents highlighted a number of critical success factors for mobile payments, including convenience/accessibility (81%), simplicity/ease of use (73%), security (57%) and low cost (43%).

Key challenges for this sector saw security concerns take the top spot (71%), followed by technology/adoption (57%) and privacy (38%).

The majority of companies surveyed - 58% – indicated they have a mobile payments strategy in place, and half of those, are also already offering a mobile payments service.

"Most respondents surveyed assess that it will take two to four years for mobile payments to move into the mainstream in their primary region of business. We believe that exploding smart phone growth, new applications and economic opportunities will see the pace of growth increase at a much faster rate than our respondents anticipate," says Egidio Zarrella, Clients and Innovation Partner at KPMG.

Respondents were asked to assess five types of mobile payments: M-Wallet, M-Banking, contactless card systems, online payment systems and carrier billing. They identified M-Banking and online payment systems (Paypal, Boku, Obopay) as either mainstream today or most likely to gain traction.

Zarrella adds: "It is important to note that mobile payments are not restricted to retail banks. We see growing interest among commercial banks to leverage these forms of payments as a key differentiator and potential revenue generator."