CGAP, a microfinance group based at the World Bank, and the U.K.'s Department for International Development (DFID) released a new report "Scenarios for Branchless Banking in 2020". The report is the product of a six month scenario-building project that engaged nearly 200 leaders from the fields of technology and finance from more than 30 countries.

U.S.-based microfinance policy and research center CGAP reported on Monday that mobile financial services to poor people in emerging economies will increase from nothing to $5 billion in 2012. By the moment the adoption of mobile payments was limited by a number of emerging markets with developed countries giving their preference to online banking. New estimates were made by GCAP in association with industry group GSMA.

Microfinance group CGAP established a partnership with South Africa's Wizzit Bank in a move to trial mobile banking services in the smallest towns and communities of the country. The program is targeting the major wholesalers serving more than 500 microentrepreneurs, who run small 'spaza' shops, in the township of Motherwell, where three in five people are unbanked.

CGAP has announced the release of a new research findings aimed at encouraging telecom operators, financial institutions and governments to see the business potential in developing markets.  Elizabeth Littlefield, CEO of CGAP notes that financial crisis, just like many economic hardships in the past, should lead to greatest innovations. The company notes that m-banking has not developed up to its full potential yet.