I’m sure by now, you’ve realized I keenly watch the mobile money industry numbers, so when I came across this article on the Financial Times Adviser site it caught my interest. The piece by Mike Appleby a SRI analyst at Alliance Trust Investments maps out the benefits and risk of mobile payments, and shares encouraging numbers from Gartner.

Gartner projects market growth for mobile transactions at 42% between 2011 and 2016, and a market worth $617 billion by 2016. Very promising numbers, yet while the developing world is embracing mobile payments, for a wide variety of reasons, most of all financial inclusion, North America and the developed world lags behind.

The reality is that in the developed world where most consumers have a bank account and it is all about convenience. The stakes simply aren’t as high when deciding to adopt technology or not which presents a real threat. As the piece points out there are some serious risks to mobile money including lack of convenience and security concerns.

With the high level of fragmentation across carriers, handset manufacturers and financial institutions, not to mention governments that are looking for ways to regulate mobile money, this risk is very real and has the potential to slow adoption. Instead of rushing to get a piece of the pie, some planning and coordination amongst all the players will go a long way to helping to ensure the market sails past the $617 billion mark by 2016 and driving consumer adoption around the world.