The wait is over — realtime mobile banking transactions are here!

Here, that is, if you are in Kenya or another country served by M-Pesa. The realtime service was unveiled today.

M-Pesa, the money transfer service launched by the mobile phone service provider Safaricom in 2007, has made Kenya the toast of mobile payments enthusiasts across the globe. In 2011, M-Pesa’s platform was extended to include mobile banking services, including the storage of money and bill payment. Before the latest system update, M-Pesa’s banking platform was already fast, with transactions typically settled within two hours. That time is now down to 30 seconds.

Safaricom, owned by the British company Vodafone, is one of Kenya’s leading mobile service providers. The company formed in 1997 and launched M-Pesa as a simple person-to-person payments platform that operates via text message ten years later.

Realtime transactions remain a distant dream for mobile banking customers in the U.S.

M-Pesa has had a transformative effect on Kenya’s economy, where bank branches are scarce but mobile phones nearly ubiquitous. Customers formerly dependent on cash can now use their mobile phones for many financial needs. A primary use case is for urban worker to transfer funds back to relatives in the countryside.

M-Pesa has more than 15 million users (Kenya has a population of about 43 million people) and processes 80 transactions a second. M-Pesa transactions account for more than 30% of Kenya’s GDP. M-Pesa is also available in a growing list of countries, such as Tanzania, India, Egypt, Romania and South Africa.