According to YellowPepper, more than 80 percent of Latin Americans have access to mobile phones. The company said that it supported 47 million mobile transactions in 2009 and predicts that it will surpass the number in 2010.

“YellowPepper’s strategy is to continue to expand within the region to other countries, as well as to continue to add financial functionality for evolving technologies and mobile phone models,” said Rafael Russ, CEO of YellowPepper, Miami.

“We are contributing to the mobile finance ecosystem by increasing connectivity to goods and services suppliers, making our offering more relevant and valuable,” he said.

Mobile banking
YellowPepper has established relationships with several of the region’s financial institutions including Banco Pichincha in Ecuador, Banco AV Villas, Banco De Bogota, Banco De Occidente and Banco Popular in Colombia and Banco Bisa in Bolivia.

Last month, the company launched is YellowPepper Mony service which targeted to the unbanked.

The company partnered with Funamo, a mobile banking and payment software services provider.

According to YellowPepper, the high concentration of mobile users in Latin America and the increased desire for innovation within the financial marketplace has present an ideal opportunity for it to grow and meet consumers needs.

The company partnered with Western Union, Fundamo, Credibanco and regional and national banks, as well as carriers.

“Our infrastructure has been a success due to the quality of our technology, caliber of our partnerships, knowledge of the Latin American marketplace, in addition to the quality of our staff and our execution capabilities,” Mr. Russ said.

Financial service
The mobile service which has several features such as money transfers, bill payments, balance inquiries, pay-as-go mobile transactions and prepaid mobile phone replenishment.

YellowPepper claims that it extended the capabilities of the service with a mobile wallet offering built by its mobile financial services supplier Fundamo.

Additionally, the company’s services are available in Ecuador, Colombia, Bolivia, Guatemala, Peru and Panama.

The company said that more than 30 corporations within the retail, insurance, food distribution, importing, entertainment and pharmaceutical industries are using its mobile commerce service.

“Yellow Pepper will soon be launching more services for the unbanked and underserved that will be far reaching into rural areas within Latin America,” Mr. Russ said.

“These offerings will connect into the international network of global remittances and prepaid phone replenishment,” he said.