LIVE FROM GSMA MOBILE MONEY SUMMIT 2011: Closer integration with social networking has the potential to be a major new market opportunity for mobile money services, industry leaders said at a press roundtable event today.

The integration of person-to-person (P2P) payments with popular social networks such as Facebook and Twitter was identified as a major development in the pipeline. “Growth in P2P is coming out of growth in social networks,” said Bill Gajda (pictured), Visa’s global head of mobile products. “We see payments becoming a part of social networking.”

As well as P2P money transfer, social network-based mobile money services will also enable real-time offers and virtual coupons. “Social networking is redefining commerce,” said Gajda.

Representing the banks, Citibank’s Dickson Chu said that the “extremely personal” nature of the mobile device – linked with the power of social networking – would create a wealth of new opportunities for the payments industry.

An early example of collaboration in this space is the recent agreement between American Express and Foursquare. Under the scheme, American Express cardholders can link their card with Foursquare to receive savings when they “check-in” at a participating merchant. A pilot has been running in Austin, Texas, since March, and the two firms announced last week that they are expanding the scheme nationwide in the US.

During the roundtable, Ben Soppitt of Indonesian mobile operator Axis said that similar services were also being devised in the developing world. He noted that one of Axis’ local banking partners had created a location-based merchant finder that includes a P2P payments service. “This is the kind of thing that enables scale,” Soppitt said.