Worldwide, the use of mobile finance increased compared to last year as the infrastructure for mobile finance gets an upgrade.

Explained Fergusson: "The necessity, marked interest and the blossoming mobile finance infrastructure means that countries such as Brazil and China have the right ingredients to drive mobile finance growth, not just in their own markets, but globally as well."

For China, the percentage of mobile phone users doing mobile banking increased by 25 per cent last year compared to only 10 per cent the previous year. TNS said this trend means there is an opportunity for companies to reach out more to their customers.

The TNS Mobile Life 2011 is the sixth annual study. This year's report involved interviews with more than 34,000 respondents in 43 countries.