Monthly active mobile money accounts saw their highest growth since 2021.
March 24, 2026, London: More than $2 trillion flowed through mobile money wallets worldwide in 2025, according to the State of the Mobile Money Industry Report 2026, prepared by the GSMA's mobile money programme. This is an important threshold and exemplifies the exponential growth in transaction values that the industry has experienced in recent years. It took 20 years to surpass $1 trillion in annual transaction values, but only four years for this figure to double.
Since its inception just 25 years ago, mobile money has become a mainstream financial service for underserved populations around the world, empowering those without access to traditional banking services and contributing to economic growth in countries where mobile money is present. The report also found that mobile money reached 2.3 billion registered accounts in 2025, growing by 268 million.
Vivek Badrinath, CEO of GSMA, comments: “Mobile money has become one of the most impactful financial services in the world. What started as a simple way to move money has evolved into a global financial ecosystem, reshaping the way hundreds of millions of people manage their financial lives. The market is reaching new heights and greater maturity. Adoption and regular usage are increasing, and value is increasing even faster than volume: more than $2 trillion will flow through mobile money in 2025, doubling from the first trillion in just four years.
“Looking ahead, the growing scale and sophistication of the industry will bring new opportunities and new responsibilities. By prioritizing interoperability and interoperability–border harmonization; participate in public digital infrastructure; strengthen consumer protection and anti-fraud controls; and by accelerating women's inclusion and financial health outcomes, we can ensure that mobile money continues to provide secure, inclusive and sustainable digital financial services.”
Regular mobile money use is growing, supporting financial health
Regular mobile money usage has increased globally over the past year, with 30-day active accounts increasing 15% to 593 million. The majority of new registered and active accounts came from sub-Saharan Africa, although almost all regions where mobile money is offered saw an increase. This has led to monthly mobile money account usage growing by half a percentage point to 25.7%, the highest since 2021. However, this still leaves almost 75% of accounts inactive on a monthly basis, fraud remains widespread and transaction taxes often encourage users to revert to cash in countries where they are in effect, negatively impacting financial inclusion.
Through more frequent use, mobile money users can improve their financial health – the ability to manage everyday financial needs, withstand shocks and invest in the future – by benefiting from the growing provision of adjacent services such as credit, savings and insurance. The report found that the number of mobile money providers offering insurance increased by a third in 2025. Mobile money-enabled credit remains the most offered adjacent financial service, and this is almost equaled by those offering savings options.
Regulation supports mobile money to improve financial inclusion
Regulation is playing a key role in expanding the reach of mobile money, the GSMA reports. More than 60% of mobile money providers believe that interoperability, know-your-customer and consumer protection regulations have supported their operations. Although more must be done to support the industry, important regulatory issues remain, particularly cross-border data transfer regulations, which 24% of mobile money providers say have hampered their operations.
With an enabling regulatory environment, the mobile money industry will be able to continue to grow and, in turn, promote financial inclusion, especially among groups that have traditionally lacked access to banking services. This is vital as a wide gender gap in mobile money account ownership persists in seven out of 10 countries surveyed in the report. Aside from Ghana, Kenya and Nigeria, women who own a mobile money account are still less likely than men to have used it in the last month.
Mobile money fuels innovation forever
In addition to accelerating financial inclusion and supporting better financial health, the use of mobile money is generating broader social and humanitarian benefits by enabling rapid payments during crises, particularly in remote regions. However, for these and other use cases to be successful, mobile money must be complemented by digital financial education initiatives to continue responsible growth across all regions and demographics.
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About the GSMA
The GSMA is a global organization that unifies the mobile ecosystem to discover, develop and deliver critical innovation for positive business environments and social change. Our vision is to unlock the full power of connectivity so that people, industry and society thrive. Representing mobile operators and organizations across the mobile ecosystem and adjacent industries, the GSMA offers its members three broad pillars: connectivity for good, industry services and solutions, and outreach. This activity includes advancing policy, addressing today's biggest societal challenges, supporting the technology and interoperability that make mobile devices work, and providing the world's largest platform to convene the mobile ecosystem at the MWC and M360 series of events.
We invite you to learn more at gsma.com
The report is funded by the Gates Foundation.
Notes to editors: What is mobile money?
According to the IMF Financial Access Survey, mobile money is a pay-as-you-go digital medium of exchange and store of value using mobile phones, facilitated by a network of mobile money agents. It is a financial service offered primarily to its customers by a mobile network operator or other entity associated with mobile network operators, independently of the traditional banking network. A bank account is not required to use mobile money services; the only prerequisite is a basic mobile phone. On the other hand, mobile banking is the use of an application on a mobile device to access and execute traditional banking services, such as check deposits, balance inquiries, and payment transfers.
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