Nokia has announced today will be launching a new service called Nokia Money.  This means that anyone that has a Nokia phone will have access to basic financial services.

Nokia users will be able to send money to another person just by entering another person’s mobile phone number.  Merchants will also be able to collect bills through this service as well.

The telecommunications giant is currently building a network of Nokia Money agents where consumers will be able to deposit and withdraw cash.

“We believe mobile financial services offer a market opportunity with long term growth potential. In many countries, mobile phone ownership significantly exceeds bank account usage, suggesting that many mobile phone users have very limited or no access to basic financial services. With more than 4 billion mobile phone users and only 1.6 billion bank accounts, global demand for access to financial services presents a strong opportunity to combine mobile devices with simple but powerful financial services such as Nokia Money”, stated Nokia EVP and Chief Development Officer Mary McDowell in a press release.

The service is being put together through a partnership between Nokia and Obopay.  Obopay already has a mobile payment platform in place, now they are working on getting it integrated with Nokia.

Obopay.com is a mobile service that allows people to transfer money through text messages.  The Redwood City-based company was founded by Carol L. Realini and John Tumminaro.   Nokia Corporation wanted to get in early on the company’s success so they invested $70 million into the company.  The deal was primarily in exchange for preferred stock.

Obopay currently works in the U.S. and in India.  Some of Obopay’s competition includes PayPal Mobile, TextPayMe, and Mpayy.

Now Obopay is over $139 million in funding.  The previous round was $69 million from Qualcomm, Essar Communications Holdings Ltd., Alliance Bernstein, ONSET Ventures, Redpoint Ventures, Richmond Management, Richmond Global Cellular, Citi, Societe Generale, Promethean, and Olayan America Corporation.

[via VentureBeat]