If mobile financial services are proving a disappointment in the developed markets of Asia and Europe, the financial institutions and telephone companies that provide those services could do worse than to explore the world’s emerging markets. Indeed, the providers could even find more fertile ground there.

For the fact is that one day, in most of the world’s emerging markets, more people will use mobile telephones than use fixed telephone lines. Businesses that are based on mobile financial services will thus be a natural fit for these economies. What is more, there is no need to wait for the next-generation mobile networks; these businesses can be built using today’s technology. But to capture this significant opportunity, financial firms and telecommunications companies will have to forge partnerships with one another and, possibly, with merchants and retail chains as well.

Emerging markets: The greater opportunity

Mobile financial services are just that: financial services delivered through the medium of mobile handsets. Users can make basic inquiries about their balances or, in a more complicated maneuver, their payments. Basic services are already widely available in developed countries and in the more sophisticated emerging markets, such as Hong Kong and South Korea. So far,...