Visa Money Transfer Goes Mobile in India

According to Santanu Mukherjee, Country Manager – South Asia, Visa International Asia Pacific, “Visa Money Transfer was designed to address the needs of both remittance senders and recipients - providing convenience, security and speed of transfer at a reasonable cost across a wide geographical spread. While India is the leading recipient of international remittances in the world, there is need for domestic remittance services as well, as Indians also send money to family and friends who live in other parts of the country. The extension of Visa Money Transfer to mobile phones provides a convenient means for Indians to remit funds.

“Extending the service to mobile phones fits with Indian consumer behavior as India currently has more than 166 million mobile subscribers, and according to Wireless Intelligence, is the number two market in the world in terms of new GSM subscribers. Indians are signing up for mobile phone service at a rate of five million new wireless connections a month,” he added.

Chairman and managing director of Corporation Bank, Shri B. Sambamurthy, said, “Visa Money Transfer via mobile phones is yet another value-added service the bank is offering to its customers. Corporation Bank has used new technologies such as SMS banking and internet banking services to provide banking services to not only its urban customers but also rural and semi-urban customers. The bank is already offering Visa Money Transfer on its ATM network and is now delighted to extend this service via mobile phones.”

Executive vice president, Retail Banking, HDFC Bank, Mr. Rahul Bhagat said, “HDFC Bank customers will benefit from the Visa Money Transfer service via mobile phones, as it facilitates quick, easy and convenient transactions. Visa Money Transfer via mobile phones is another landmark in the Indian banking history, charting how remittance has evolved over time from plastic to ATMs to the internet and now to mobile phones.”

ICICI Senior general manager and head of Cards Products Group, Sachin Khandelwal said ICICI Bank and Visa have been working together to provide value-added services to existing ICICI Bank Visa credit and debit cardholders. “It is our endeavor to bring out the latest financial technology options and services that are secure and convenient to our customers. As one of the users of mChek technology, we are pleased to be part of the Visa Money Transfer via mobile phones development and offer the service to ICICI Bank cardholders,” he said.

Chief executive officer of mChek, Mr. Sanjay Swamy, said, “mChek is proud to partner with Visa and be the first banking technology company in India to enable person-to-person money transfer via mobile phones. Together with our industry-leading partners - ICICI Bank, HDFC Bank and Corporation Bank -we can now make sending and receiving money convenient in India.”

Initially, this service will be a pilot program available to Visa cardholders of Corporation Bank, HDFC Bank and ICICI Bank. The recipient can be a Visa cardholder of any bank in India and the money can be transferred to his/her mobile phone or Visa card. To enable this application on cardholders’ mobile phones, there are two options:

• Cardholders with Java-enabled mobile phones need only to download the application onto their phones
• Non-Java-enabled mobile phone users can have their existing SIM cards replaced.

There is a minimal cost for each transaction that will be fixed by the cardholder’s issuing bank. To ensure security, users of this service have a unique passcode which will prevent misuse even if their phone is lost.