Mobile payments will one day soon be big business, especially in the developing world. Seeking a piece of the action, this morning Nokia announced a mobile payments and financial service, Nokia Money, based on the Obopay infrastructure. According to the press release:

Nokia Money has been designed to be as simple and convenient as making a voice call or sending an SMS. It 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 (SIM top-up). The services can be accessed 24 hours a day from anywhere, meaning savings in travel costs and time. Nokia is building a wide network of Nokia Money agents, where consumers can deposit money in or withdraw cash from their accounts . . .

The Nokia Money service will be operated in cooperation with Obopay, a leader in developing global mobile payment solutions, which Nokia invested in earlier this year. The service is based on Obopay's mobile payment platform, with unique and newly developed mobile elements. Nokia intends the service to be open and interoperable with other payment services as well.

As Nokia points out in the release there are nearly 4 billion mobile phones in the world but only 1.6 billion bank accounts -- hence the opportunity Nokia perceives, especially in non-Western countries without the same financial infrastructure. 

In March of this year Nokia invested an estimated $70 million in Obopay. If the new Nokia Money service gains adoption it could mean Nokia will make an effort to buy the rest of the company. 

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Related: Facebook begins testing mobile payments with Zong.