Visa today announced the launch of the world’s first bank-grade managed service platform for mobile money, Visa Mobile Managed Service, designed to enable financial institutions and mobile network operators to quickly deploy mobile money programs across the country. Mobile network operators and financial institutions that wish to set up a mobile money service need simply to subscribes to Visa Mobile Managed Service, allowing Visa to host and fully manage all aspects of the mobile money program on behalf of its clients: from look and feel, to consumer enrollment, to transactions processing, authorization, clearing and settlement – all on its trusted and reliable platform.
For mobile money service providers this means no more large capital investment or technology infrastructure required, as well as increased speed to market and the ability to keep up with the latest advances in mobile services. Visa Mobile Managed Services is not limited to larger banks or telecom operators, smaller providers can also take advantage of Visa’s technology to bring affordable mobile financial services to other parts of the country, contributing to advance financial inclusion in India.
“Through this new platform, Visa brings its global expertise in electronic payments to deliver easy and secure mobile payments to India”, said Uttam Nayak, Visa’s Group Country Manager for South Asia. “Our new mobile managed service reduces time, complexities and costs for India’s financial institutions and telecom operators to set up mobile financial services. Once again Visa is increasing the reach of electronic payments beyond tier 1 and tier 2 cities by driving financial inclusion through affordable access and low cost acceptance. It’s part of our continued push to develop India’s payments ecosystem.”
The new service has been launched initially with Aircel and ICICI Bank. Through Visa’s managed platform, Aircel mobile subscribers will have access to a financial account that is linked to their mobile phone number in order to receive services such as cash deposits and cash withdrawals, money transfer to third parties, self-reload of prepaid mobile credit, and various utility bill payments.
Geoff King, Head of Mobile Banking, Aircel, said, “We are extremely pleased to launch Mobile Money, providing our customers with a safe, secure and instant way of managing their financial needs. By building ‘Mobile Money’ on the Visa platform and partnering with ICICI Bank, we have joined forces with two companies that have a strong pedigree in financial services, together with a great desire to deliver innovative financial service solutions to better meet the needs of the country’s unbanked. Aircel brings to the partnership not only our mobile network but just as importantly our attention and care in serving our customers every day with many millions of small cash transactions through our vast retailer and distributor setup.”
The new service is a further sign of Visa’s commitment to helping India businesses to unlock the potential of mobile payments as well as support the government reach its electronic payment and financial inclusion objectives. Visa Mobile Managed Service will be initially available in Tamil Nadu and phased out across the rest of the country in 2013.
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About Visa Inc.
Visa is a global payments technology company that connects consumers, businesses, financial institutions and governments in more than 200 countries and territories to fast, secure and reliable electronic payments. We operate one of the world’s most advanced processing networks—VisaNet—that is capable of handling more than 24,000 transaction messages a second, with fraud protection for consumers and assured payment for merchants. Visa is not a bank and does not issue cards, extend credit or set rates and fees for consumers. Visa’s innovations, however, enable its financial institution customers to offer consumers more choices: pay now with debit, ahead of time with prepaid or later with credit products. For more information, visit corporate.visa.com.
About Aircel Ltd:
Aircel is India’s fifth largest and fastest growing GSM mobile service provider and a pan India operator. It won 3G spectrum in 13 circles and BWA spectrum in 8 circles and has successfully launched 3G services in 13 circles, which is the fastest 3G roll out ever in the Indian Telecom Space. Aircel has been constantly innovating products and services and is credited with making 3G affordable to masses by launching Pocket Internet Smart which offers best value 3G packs. Aircel Pocket Internet Smart gave a boost to 3G adoption in the country as it is a true value for money product that allows consumers to access unlimited 3G data at extremely affordable prices. Aircel has positioned itself as a data led telecom player and has addressed the multi-functionality of a mobile phone in many innovative ways which are Industry firsts, be it the Aircel Pocket Internet, Pocket Internet Games, the first social networking mobile INQ on Aircel, Aircel Apollo Mobile Health Care, Blyk on Aircel, an enriching engagement for the Youth and very recently the first telecom player to introduce Facebook Voice Updates on Aircel. Aircel is also a preferred telecom network to launch Apple iPhone 3GS, iPhone 4, iPhone 4S and iPhone 5. For more information, please log on to www.aircel.com.
About ICICI Bank Ltd:
ICICI Bank Limited (NYSE:IBN) is India's largest private sector bank and the second largest bank in the country, with consolidated total assets of US $ 122 billion at December 31, 2012. ICICI Bank’s subsidiaries include India’s leading private sector insurance companies and among its largest securities brokerage firms, mutual funds and private equity firms. ICICI Bank’s presence currently spans 19 countries, including India. For more information, please visit www.icicibank.com.
