The Next Banking Boom: The 2.5 Billion Unbanked Worldwide

Of the 5 billion adults in the world, staggeringly, only half have a bank account.

This is one of the huge findings from a global poll by the World Bank and Gallup, funded by the Gates Foundation. The report, by World Bank economists Asli Demirguc-Kunt and Leora Klapper, is brilliant.

This big finding means that 2.5 billion people are “unbanked,” therefore not participating in modern economic life. Advanced countries can feed them, clothe them, rush them medicine, school them -- but those people will never experience sustainable human development until they’re integrated into the global channels of buying and selling. Simply put, they need access to money and credit, and they need to have a bank account.

The unbanked actually create a particular opportunity for the United States. This is especially true as world GDP, which is currently at $60 trillion, will grow to more than $200 trillion over the next 30 years. So $140 trillion worth of new customers are coming into global markets. Note to the U.S. president and all American governors: Within this $140 trillion are the best jobs in the world -- jobs follow customers, not vice versa.

World banking is in fact ripe for American innovation and entrepreneurship, as technology and service -- two places where the U.S. still leads the world -- will play an essential role in winning these new customers.

Now, just who are these 2.5 billion potential customers? A good place to start is with those who need accounts for “remittances.” This is the money earned by a family member in another country that’s sent back home. The total amount of remittances sent home by family heroes from any country to any country was more than $350 billion in 2011.

America’s technological advantage will come into play because most of that $350 billion in remittances will never make it to a bank branch. This is because, globally, most branch banking will go away in our lifetimes. Expect those new customers to open bank accounts via remittances and for all of that new business to be done through mobile banking, where U.S. banks can excel. And once those new customers are locked in, they will stay with one bank for a very long time, as customers just don’t change banks very often.

As everything is going virtual, so too is global banking. Let the record show that the country that dominates the next 2.5 billion unbanked will also dominate the world of customers, and, subsequently, the best jobs.