Of the blue-chip management consultants, I have always thought of McKinsey’s as the most serious. They will not try and get on a hype-wave and sell you unproven concepts. When you contract McKinsey’s you expect level-heading, robust solutions. This is a block-buster consulting company with a brand that top executives relate to. This is why it was with interest that I read a recent article in the McKinsey Quarterley called: “Capturing the promise of mobile banking in emerging markets”. (Read here).The article says that the deployment of mobile financial services is a “strategic shift” for mobiel operators and an attempt to counter slowing subscriber numbers and reduction in profits. Big words coming from a major management consultancy. What I liked most about the article is all the numbers:For every 10,000 people, developing countries have one bank branch and one ATM—but 5,100 mobile phones. Mobile devices reduce the cost to serve customers with financial services by 50 to 70 percentAbout 45 million people without traditional bank accounts use mobile money, but predict that this number could rise to 360 million by 2012In less than three years, the opportunity could generate $5 billion annually in direct revenueI also found reading the comments interesting. Not only are most of a very high quality and demonstrate a lot of insight, but the majority of authors are all from emerging countries (China, India and Nigeria). Really worth a read. Well done McKinsey.

Read more: http://mbanking.blogspot.com/2010/03/can-anything-be-more-serious-than.html