Payments company Boku in partnership with Juniper Research have released the 2020 mobile wallets report. The report shows that many people in the Global South still lack access to bank accounts, with Africa leading at 39%, followed by Indian (27%) Central and East Asia (17%) and Latin America at 24%. However, these regions are leading in smartphone penetration as well as real time payment services. The report gives examples of services such as India's UPI, Thailand's PromptPay, Kenya's Pesalink, Brazil's Pix and Mexico's Cobro Digital. 

Mobile payments were catalysed by the COVID-19 pandemic as countries adopted contactless means of payment. This led to over 2.8 billion mobile wallets in 2020, a number projected to increase to 4.8 billion by the end of 2025.