Nokia has announced a move into financial services. The new direction for Nokia will see it working with mobile payment specialist Obopay, in which Nokia invested $70m in March this year.

Telecoms.com reports Nokia looks to be targeting emerging markets with its Nokia Money service, with the firm predicting that, for many prospective users, it will be the first experience of financial services. While there are four billion mobile phones in the world, Nokia said, there are only 1.6 billion bank accounts, creating a large potential market for basic financial services.

The new suite of services will enable consumers to send money to another person just by using the person’s mobile phone number, as well as to pay merchants for goods and services, pay their utility bills, or recharge their prepaid SIM cards, Nokia said. The firm is creating a network of Nokia Money agents, where users will be able to deposit and withdraw cash from their accounts.

The service will be debuted at Nokia World next week and commercial deployment is scheduled for 2010.

Tags: Bridging the digital divide, Financial services, Mobile Money, Nokia