Dec 9, 2011 12:52 PM,

Mobile devices pushing international remittances to $55 billion in 2016

By Michelle Maisto

The same week Verizon CEO Lowell McAdam explained how everyone wins with mobile payments, Juniper pointed to rising mobile phone remittances across "migration corridors."

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In keeping with the growing mobile payments trend, there are high expectations for the international remittances being sent over mobile handsets. While the market saw less than $12 billion change hands this year, that figure is headed toward $55 billion in 2016, according to a new report from Juniper Research.

The strongest growth areas for the market, says the report, are "established migration corridors, such as the U.S.-Mexico and intra-regional transfers across Africa and the Middle East, as migrant workers send money back home from foreign countries." Rising inter- and intra-regional growth from and within Western Europe, however, has that region expecting to see the largest remittance volumes in 2016.

Conveniences such as touchscreens, apps, Internet access and mass-market feature phones should all have a "trickle down" effect in the medium term, says the report, as can simplifying the process for users .

"In markets with low literacy levels, money transfer applications on the handset based around easily recognizable icons may gain a far wider usage than services based around text-based menus," said report author Windsor Holden in a statement.

The report warns that a lack of regulatory engagement with service providers could continue to "inhibit service deployment and adoption of both domestic and international remittance services." Further, growth could be improved, Holden offered, by service providers agreeing to take a lower commission and offering more flexible pricing structures, as well as by doing a better job of training local agent networks.

In October, Juniper forecast that the value of mobile payment transactions for physical goods will exceed $170 billion globally by 2015 — up considerably from its $60 billion forecast for 2011.

All the major carriers and credit card companies, as well as other industry players, well aware of the market's potential, are rolling out mobile payment solutions, have plans in the works or have even doubled up.