Over 80 percent of executive managers think that mobile payments will be a mass phenomenon in four years, according to the “2011 KPMG Mobile Payments Outlook”, a survey conducted on about 1,000 executives primarily in financial services, technology, telecommunications, and retail industries globally. However, 42 percent of the respondents say that mobile payments will become a mass phenomenon in about 2 years.

In Romania, the use of mobile payments is not yet widespread.  “Despite the relatively low adoption of the mobile payments deployed in the Romanian market starting in early 2000, we consider that there is good potential for new business models and supporting technologies to be deployed. A wide variety of payments solutions is ready for adoption and interest among consumers in using mobile payments is growing, in line with the industry’s readiness to deploy them,” according to Mihai Rada, Director Management Consulting in KPMG Romania.

Over 70 percent of the executives say that mobile payments are now or will be important in the future, while 58 percent said they have a mobile payments strategy in place, according to the study. While the majority of the business leaders surveyed believe consumers are currently concerned about security and privacy when using mobile devices, 81 percent believe that convenience/accessibility is the highest attribute, followed by simplicity/ease of use, at 73 percent, security, at 57 percent, and low cost, at 43 percent.

The “2011 KPMG Mobile Payments Outlook” surveyed 970 business people from Americas, Europe, the Middle East, Asia/Africa, and Asia Pacific.

Irina Popescu, irina.popescu@romania-insider.com

(photo source: photoxpress.com)