When the Insurer Sends Money Back: Mobile Money as the Payout Rail 2026
State Farm Mutual is issuing the largest dividend in its history: $5 billion returned to auto policyholders, covering roughly 49 million vehicles and working out to about $100 per vehicle on average (State Farm newsroom; the Louisiana insurance department puts that state’s average at $138 per vehicle). Payments go out in phases through the end of the year. Eligible customers with an email address on file get a message asking them to select a payment method; everyone else gets a check in the mail (Louisiana Department of Insurance).
That last detail is the quiet machinery behind the headline. A dividend, a refund, a claim payout — money only reaches people if there is a rail to carry it. In the United States, that rail is the bank account: 97% of adults have one (United States, 2024). But globally, the receiving rail is not the same everywhere. In 87 economies the World Bank measures a second rail — mobile money — and in much of the world it is the rail, not a supplement to banking. This report ranks those 87 economies on mobile money account ownership: where an unexpected payment from an insurer would land in a phone instead of a bank.
The Data
The World Bank Global Findex asks adults whether they own a mobile money account. Coverage spans 87 economies, and the leaders are not where the biggest insurance markets are. The top 15, all from the 2024 survey wave:
| Rank | Economy | Mobile money accounts | Year |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Kenya | 87.5% | 2024 |
| 2 | Ghana | 78.3% | 2024 |
| 3 | Zambia | 69.3% | 2024 |
| 4 | Uganda | 67.7% | 2024 |
| 5 | Senegal | 66.9% | 2024 |
| 6 | Mongolia | 64.0% | 2024 |
| 7 | Gabon | 61.6% | 2024 |
| 8 | South Korea | 60.1% | 2024 |
| 9 | Brazil | 58.2% | 2024 |
| 10 | Argentina | 56.7% | 2024 |
| 11 | Singapore | 56.5% | 2024 |
| 12 | Cameroon | 55.1% | 2024 |
| 13 | Lesotho | 53.5% | 2024 |
| 14 | Cote d’Ivoire | 53.4% | 2024 |
| 15 | Tanzania | 52.9% | 2024 |
Selected mid-table and bottom entries — where a $100 payout has progressively fewer digital places to go:
| Rank | Economy | Mobile money accounts | Year |
|---|---|---|---|
| 39 | Nigeria | 32.8% | 2024 |
| 41 | South Africa | 31.6% | 2024 |
| 44 | Philippines | 28.8% | 2024 |
| 47 | India | 23.1% | 2024 |
| 83 | Sri Lanka | 3.0% | 2024 |
| 84 | Lebanon | 2.7% | 2024 |
| 85 | Tunisia | 2.6% | 2024 |
| 86 | South Sudan | 0.8% | 2021 |
| 87 | Afghanistan | 0.0% | 2021 |
The spread is enormous: 87.5% in Kenya versus 0.0% in Afghanistan. And notably, the world’s richest insurance markets — the United States, United Kingdom, Germany, Japan, France, Canada — do not appear in the 87-economy ranking at all: the Global Findex reports no mobile money account observation for them, because the receiving rail there is the bank account, not the wallet.
Analysis
Three patterns stand out.
First, mobile money is a frontier-market rail — and a fast-growing one. Five of the top ten are in Sub-Saharan Africa, the region that pioneered the model with M-Pesa. The growth behind the 2024 numbers is steep: Ghana went from 13.0% in 2014 to 78.3% in 2024, Senegal from 6.2% to 66.9%. The surprises are outside Africa: Brazil climbed from 0.9% in 2014 to 58.2% in 2024, Argentina from 0.4% to 56.7%, and Mongolia from 5.0% to 64.0%. A payout rail that barely existed a decade ago now covers a majority of adults in 18 economies. For the growth story in full, see our top 10 mobile money countries and the global mobile money report.
Second, mobile money is what makes “everyone has an account” true where banks are thin. Account ownership — at a bank or a mobile money provider — reaches 90.1% in Kenya and 81.2% in Ghana, but those headline numbers are carried by the wallet, not the branch: 87.5% and 78.3% of adults respectively hold mobile money accounts. Kenya’s bank deposits are only 34.7% of GDP (2024) against 58.8% in the United States — the deposit system is shallower, so the phone does the work. For how the two rails interact, see banks vs. mobile money account ownership and mobile money banking gaps across continents.
Third, where neither rail exists, a payout has nowhere formal to land. South Sudan combines 0.8% mobile money adoption with 5.8% account ownership; Niger sits at 14.8% account ownership. There, a $100 dividend would arrive as cash or not at all — the mirror image of the US, where 97% of adults could take the direct deposit. This is the same divide our report on where settlement money can land documented for refunds and legal settlements: the receiving rail decides who actually gets the money.
Context
State Farm’s dividend is an insurance-market story, and the two halves don’t line up neatly. The markets that generate payouts are the big insurance economies: the United Kingdom at 24.2% of service exports, Switzerland at 20.4%, the United States at 19.3% (2024). The rails that deliver payouts are a different map, led by Kenya and Ghana. Kenya is the rare economy on both lists — insurance trade at 10.3% of service exports, the world’s deepest mobile money adoption — which is exactly why Kenya is the natural testbed for how insurance payouts flow over wallets. For the broader picture of what the insurance trade indicator captures, see our explainer on what insurance and financial services trade means and the report on where financial services trade concentrates.
The mechanics matter beyond insurers. Mobile money is the receiving rail for remittances in much of Africa and South Asia — see where remittances matter most — and for wages in economies with thin branch networks (where salaries are paid digitally). When an institution — an insurer, an employer, a government — needs to push money to millions of people at once, the question is never just “how much,” but “how does it get there.” State Farm’s answer was an email asking policyholders to pick a payment method; in Kenya or Ghana, the answer is a phone number. For what a policyholder dividend actually is — and why a mutual insurer owes its customers money at all — see our explainer on what a policyholder dividend means.
Sources & method
All figures are observed values from the World Bank Global Findex: mobile money account ownership (87 economies, predominantly the 2024 wave) and account ownership at a financial institution or mobile money provider (145 economies). Insurance and financial services trade shares come from the World Bank World Development Indicators (BX.GSR.INSF.ZS, % of service exports, 2024) and bank deposits from the IMF Financial Access Survey. State Farm dividend details are reported by the State Farm newsroom and the Louisiana Department of Insurance. Data years vary by country wave and are cited per row; no projections are used. For how FinStatGlobe builds these series, see the methodology page. Related coverage: where settlement money can land, the digital payments divide, and the state of financial inclusion 2026.