ICICI Bank in India Monday announced it will use technology provided by Movida to enhance its mobile payments credentials and give their customers a new way to pay bills from their mobile phone. Movida is a joint venture between Visa and Monitise.
ICICI customers must first connect through Movida’s secure service, which will enable ICICI cardholders to link their payment card to their mobile phone to make payments. Customers then can make payments over Movida technology platform which protects all card account information with a personal PIN.
Naushad Contractor, Movida’s resident and head of the Visa-Monitise joint venture in India, commented on the announcement:
“The mobile payment services which will succeed in India are simple, interoperable solutions that solve a real consumer need and can apply to any handset, without the need for a technology upgrade or a new purchase.”
Movida’s technology platform is accessed through either a menu-based USSD mobile technology or Interactive Voice Response (IVR), which is available in multiple languages. The multiple language feature is a must in India as there are over 30 languages or dialects with some one million speakers, according to the Indian Census Bureau.
ICICI Bank’s move to add more mobile payment functionality follows its agreement to bring M-Pesa to India (http://www.paymentsjournal.com/Page.aspx?id=16124&terms=M-pesa+india) earlier this year. The bank is making it clear it aims to tap into the growing use of mobile payments.
Movida last year reached a similar agreement with HDFC Bank.
ICICI Bank bringing an effective mobile payments solution to customers makes sense and will serve as a strong product differentiator as more Indian consumers buy mobile phones. Additionally, a mobile payments solution also will improve the likelihood of financial institutions being able to tap into the nearly 700 million unbanked consumers in India.
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