Movida, the 50/50 joint venture between Visa and Monitise in India, has signed an agreement with HDFC Bank, India’s second-largest private bank, to introduce a mobile payments service. The new service, which will eventually be rolled out to other Indian banks and is powered by Monitise’s technology platform, will allow HDFC customers to immediately pay bills, top up prepaid airtime and buy tickets from their mobile phone. It is designed to operate across all mobile networks using any Visa or non-Visa branded payment account.
The new limited mobile payments service is initially being offered to a select number of HDFC bank customers, before being rolled out across India and all customer segments later in the year. Millions of rural Indians from lots of different banks should eventually benefit from being able to access mobile and online payment services via a basic prepaid mobile phone. This is an advantage that is only now reaching out across the country as its internet and telecoms infrastructure is expanded, allowing for the rollout of services such as Movida’s.
The new service uses menu-based Unstructured Supplementary Service Data mobile GSM communication technology to make it easy-to-use and widely available. After linking their HDFC Bank Visa or non-Visa payment card to their mobile phone number, cardholders can access the service via USSD over Movida’s secure connection. From then on it is just a matter of selecting the payment service required and making the payment. The simple menu can complete a transaction in only a few steps.
The partners assert that the system is secure because it encompasses various security measures to maintain account integrity, principally a unique PIN number set up on the phone to access the account information. Only the user’s bank-registered phone can be connected to the service, establishing a secure connection.
According to Rahul Bhagat, Head-Retail Liabilities, Marketing & Direct Banking Channels, at launch partner HDFC Bank: “The partnership with Movida is a crucial step whereby we will enable our customers to carry out multiple mobile commerce transactions from the most basic handsets. All our customers throughout the country can now pay their bills and top up talk time with a few clicks of their mobile phones. This will save them considerable time and help them focus on [the] more important things in life.”
Commenting on the unveiling Naushad Contractor, Movida’s President, said that this is a serviced for all Indians and that his fellow countrymen will benefit as it is expanded to include other banks in the country. “Mobile payments mean Indians can wave goodbye to waiting in long queues or visiting post offices or payment machines to pay bills, as you will now be able to do that right from your mobile phone. This service is going to drastically reduce the time and energy Indians waste every day waiting to pay bills.”
