M-Pesa is a payment solution provider that launched in 2007. This mobile-based money transfer service is owned by the Vodafone Group plc and Safaricom. The latter one is the biggest network operator in Kenya. The system is supported in many countries worldwide, but notably in the African region. At the moment, there are more than 100 million M-Pesa active users globally. In 2010, M-Pesa received the honor of being the most successful payment system in the developing world. The revenue of M-Pesa exceeds half a billion USD at the moment.
The payment solution allows users to use the app as their e-wallet, make deposits, transactions, withdrawals, and various payments through it. The transaction cost is proportional to the transaction size. For transactions below 600 USD, the charge would be 2.8 US dollars. The withdrawal fee applicable to the same amount would be 3.24 US dollars.
M-Pesa holds regulations in each country where the payment system provider operates. The regulators of the company are the Central Banks of its serviced countries or financial services regulators. Furthermore, Vodafone is monitoring each transaction going through M-Pesa to ensure the performance of the bank-grade anti-money laundering system.
M-Pesa is a primary payment method in African countries like Uganda, Ghana, South Africa and Kenya. Thus, the majority of Forex brokers with M-Pesa can be found there. However, the greatest disadvantage of the payment system is that it does not operate in the majority of developed countries. For example, the United States and the companies registered there do not support M-Pesa payments. But the company keeps on expanding slowly but surely getting more streamlined and commonly accepted.
Register with best M-Pesa broker – XM
A number of well-regarded international Forex brokerages have started accepting M-Pesa payments. You can easily find international betting sites that accept M-Pesa. The ease of use of the M-Pesa system and the accessibility it provides for its users promises a great opportunity for these companies to expand their operations in the African markets.
5$
CySEC, FCA, ASIC
30$, 50%+20%
30:1
2009
MT4, MT5, WebTrader
$100
CySEC, CBI, FSA, FFAJ, BVI FSC, FSCA, FSRA
1:400
2006
MT4, MT5, WebTrader, AvaTradeGO
USD 5,000
FINMA, FCA, ASIC, FSA, MAS, AFM
N/A
1:30
1992
SaxoTraderGo, SaxoTraderPro
$5
SVGFSA, FCA, DFSA, FSCA, FSA
From 30% to 100%
1:1000
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MT4, MT5
15
CySEC
30%
1:500
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$250
FSCA
1:200
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MT4, WebTrader
100$
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N/A
30:1
2008
Custom
$0
Australia, Canada, Japan, Singapore, UK, US, BVI
From $500 to $5,000
1:888
1996
MetaTrader 4, MetaTrader 5, fxTrade Mobile app
$10
Risk Warning: YOUR CAPITAL MIGHT BE AT RISK
N/A
1:1000
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Proprietary
10 USD
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N/A
1:Unlimited
2008
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$10
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1:500
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$50
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1 USD
ASIC, FCA
10 USD
1:500
2005
MT4, MT5, WebTrader
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M-Pesa is an Africa-based payment system that was launched by Vodafone in 2007. Currently, that is the largest mobile transfer network in Kenya and Tanzania. However, as it is continually expanding and growing, it is now available in South Africa, Afghanistan, India, Romania, and Albania, with the exponentially growing number of Forex brokers that accept M-Pesa.
Among the services provided by the company you may find:
The platform itself is similar to the Safaricom of Kenya and Vodacom of Tanzania as it was created as a subsidiary of those. However, there are still some minor differences to it.
The system is basically using your mobile device as an e-wallet. Just by tying your SIM card and mobile account to the banking one, you can easily pay for services, products, utilities, as well as charge your Forex trading account with money. With M-Pesa sending money from one account to another is actually as easy as sending text messages, making M-Pesa trade extremely accessible.
One thing to note would be, that the funds kept on M-Pesa accounts are not actually controlled by the company itself, it is stored in Safaricom headquarters. Which are, in turn, managed by the Kenyan government that keeps this money in a vault. And it doesn’t just store this money, no. Those funds are going for the development of the economy as they are spread among different commercial banks and sectors. That is exactly what we mean when we say that the establishment of M-Pesa benefits the whole economy. Therefore, if you are using its services, you become part of the process as well.
Moreover, everything about M-Pesa operations is fully transparent. Meaning that the Kenyan government closely manages the actions of the Safaricom company in order not to allow it to affect the distribution of the funds raised by the M-Pesa payment system in any way.
The main factor that dictates for much the users of the M-Pesa Forex trading account will be charged depends on whether the user is registered or not. For instance, traders within Kenya will be charged with the 66 Kshs fee for transfer to any unregistered traders in case if the amount of the transfer is between 101-500 Kshs. But if the transfer is going to the registered user, then the fee will be 27 Kshs for the same transfer amount. Meanwhile, the maximum amount of the transfer can be 35,000 Kshs with a fee of 275 Kshs for unregistered users. Through a number of corporate agreements, however, transaction to a number of platforms was made extremely easy, such as transaction from Skrill to M-Pesa that can be done in microseconds.
As M-Pesa seeks to reach a high level of transparency and reliability in operations for its users, it was regulated by a couple of regulators. Those are the UK’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) and the Payment Card Industry (PCI). The company also follows the KYC (Know Your Customer) principle and, thus, requires all of its users to provide them with data that will be kept confidential but will help them to make sure that you are a real person who does not have any bad intentions for Forex trading.
The popularity of the payment method in countries like Kenya might be explained by the fact that Forex brokerage accepting M-Pesa receives a number of benefits provided by the local payment system rather than paying larger fees for using foreign ones.
Meanwhile, M-Pesa is truly a convenient tool for low-cost, fast, and safe payment, transfer, and storage of money. Moreover, everyone knows how tough and depressing is the economic situation in African countries, especially in the countrysides. Thus, there is a common thing that relatives living in urban centers are often sending money to other family members who live in villages. And as it might be simply complicated and time-consuming to send money via post or in any other way, the M-Pesa transfers of money come in handy. The transaction and administration fees are not as high as with other global payment systems.
Yet another bright side is that there is no minimum transfer amount. That means that everyone can use the service. All in all, M-Pesa provides not only benefits for the ones who are into Forex trading, but to all citizens. Cause the creation of such a financial platform leads to the development of the whole financial market as a result.
Moreover, we would like to notice how the establishment of M-Pesa leads to a decrease in corruption levels in such countries as South Africa and Afghanistan. As all transactions become transparent and traceable, that is easier for governmental institutions to control money laundering and find the scams easily.
Deposit using M-Pesa with cheapest fees at XM
Even though the company is spending enormous resources to grow as one of the leading payment solution providers it still has several limitations. Several years ago M-Pesa was not considered a reliable payment method due to inexperience in the industry and lack of partner companies. Nowadays, the number of M-Pesa partners has grown significantly reaching hundreds of businesses cooperating with the company. There are several issues left that M-Pesa has to solve to become one of the dominant payment services providers worldwide.
One of the main drawbacks of the M-Pesa payment platform is the fact that it is not available in numerous countries globally. M-Pesa is one of the main payment methods on the African continent covering 70% of the countries within the region. However, outside Africa, there are only a few countries where M-Pesa operates. It presents a huge problem for the users of the payment method if they plan to use the services of international companies through M-Pesa payment methods.
Since M-Pesa does not cover a significant proportion of Forex traders, not many Forex brokers are interested in establishing partnerships with the company. Frequently, they will go for international payment methods like PayPal, Skrill, and Neteller despite the fact that those providers offer more expensive services.
Even though M-Pesa is famous for its simplicity of the platform and user-centric approach of the company, some people may still find it confusing to deposit their funds to their trading accounts using M-Pesa. That is why we demonstrate a step-by-step process on how to register with M-Pesa, fund your wallet, and deposit using M-Pesa with your Forex broker. We will go through the process with an example of XM Forex broker.
Meanwhile, have a look at the services, conditions, and assets that one of the best Forex brokers – XM Group offers. XM is a leading broker with an M-Pesa partnership.
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