Mobile payment users worldwide are forecast to increase 2.1 percent to 109 million by the end of 2010, a US-based research firm said in a report.

Gartner Research said total mobile payment transactions will total nearly 4.5 billion in 2012, up from just 125 million in 2007, growing at an annual compounded rate of 105 percent.

In the Philippines, the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) estimates that there are at least eight million Filipinos using mobile phones to make bills payments and other banking related activities.

According to Gartner Research, mobile payment users in the Asia and Pacific region will surpass 62.8 million in 2010 and represent 2.6 percent of all mobile users in the region.

In Europe, the Middle East and Africa, mobile payment users will total 27.1 while in North America, mobile payment users will number 3.5 million and represent 1.1 percent of all mobile users in the region. Gartner Research director Sandy Shen said strong growth in mobile payment is expected in developing markets in Asia, Eastern Europe, the Middle East and Africa.

North America and Western Europe, on the other hand, will lag behind due to the numerous presence of choices of payment instruments available.

“Developing markets have found the right formula for mobile money services – functions that users want and an ecosystem that can sustain the service,” Shen added.

Developing markets generally have fewer bank and financial institutions but are rich in the number of mobile phones users.

For example more than half of the Philippines’ population own one or more mobile phones but only 26 percent have existing bank accounts.

Mobile payments is a promising area in business terms and for poverty alleviation that institutions such as Gates Foundation and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) have entered the picture.

Gates Foundation and the USAID pledged $10 million to spur the use of cell phone banking and mobile payments to bring financing to the poor and help rebuild the financial ecosystem in Haiti.

In the Philippines, the USAID through the Microenterprises Access to Banking Services (MABS) has been in the forefront of mobile banking services mainly for microfinance.

“Instead of a point offering for mobile payment, the service needs to be built on top of the existing payment behavior and infrastructure so that users can choose any channel – retail, phone, online or mobile – that suits their context at the moment of payment.”

Leading commercial banks in the Philippines offer one type or another of mobile payment system but these have not taken off compared to the mobile business of rural banks, as the convenience of mobile banking technology is magnified in far flung areas where the presence of bank branches and automated teller machines (ATM) are extremely limited.