The initial launch will occur in the eastern region of India but it will expand from there.
ICICI Bank has just announced that it has joined into a partnership with Vodafone India that will allow customers to use mobile payments to purchase goods and transfer funds.
At first, the service will be available in Jharkhand, West Bengal, and Bihar in the east.
The mobile payments service will be referred to as “m-pesa” and will allow consumers to create an account with ICICI bank, from which their Mobile Commerce Solutions. This mobile wallet will be a complete 100 percent subsidiary of Vodafone India. It will make it possible for customers to make deposits into their account, as well as to make cash withdrawals at designated locations. They will also be able to make funds transfers to any smartphone or Indian bank.
These mobile payments will even be able to let consumers pay their utility bills.
According to a statement released by ICICI bank about their new mobile payments service “These services are made convenient using a vast network of authorized agents who will enable the customer to deposit and withdraw cash in and from their account. By facilitating banking transactions at such agent locations, this alliance effectively delivers the last mile access in rural areas.”
The goal of the partnership is to leverage the security of ICICI Bank financial transactions along with the strengths of the distribution reach from Vodafone. The chief executive and managing director of Vodafone India, Marten Pieters, said that the new mobile payments service has been specially customized to meet the needs of customers in India, and to make sure that all of the country’s regulatory requirements are met.
The initial launch of the mobile payments service will start in the country’s eastern region, but after a while, it will progress through additional phases until it rolls out into other areas of the country.
According to the chief executive and managing director of ICICI Bank, Chanda Kochhar, the new m-pesa mobile payments service will give the bank the opportunity to offer basic banking services to millions of their customers throughout the nation.
