Telecommunications company Vodafone on Monday launched mobile money transfer and payment service M-Pesa in Europe for the first time, according to a press release.

Romanian consumers now can use M-Pesa, which is based on simple text messaging technology and operates over any of Vodafone Romania's mobile network connections, including its 4G services that launched in 2012, the company said in a statement. Romanian M-Pesa customers will be able to transfer as little as one new Romanian leu and up to 30,000 lei per day.

"The majority of people in Romania have at least one mobile device, but more than one-third of the population do not have access to conventional banking," Vodafone director of mobile money Michael Joseph said in a statement. "Vodafone M-Pesa is already used regularly by nearly 17 million customers, and we look forward to bringing the significant benefits of the service to the people of Romania."

Consumers can activate Vodafone M-Pesa at any one of some 300 Vodafone Romania stores and participating retail outlets as well as through authorized agents, the company said in a release. Vodafone said some 6 million people in both rural and urban areas can access the service. It will extend M-Pesa to other parts of the country, comprising a total of 2,000 retail and distribution points of presence by the end of 2014.

M-Pesa also will allow Vodafone Romania's customers to top up pre-pay airtime on a mobile device, pay utility bills, make a deposit and withdraw cash from participating agents and purchase goods, according to a statement.

The addition of Romania continues the expansion of M-Pesa worldwide, following the launches in Egypt, India, Lesotho and Mozambique over the past 12 months.