ICICI
launches 'mVisa' mobile payment service
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private sector lender ICICI Bank today launched a mobile-payment
solution based on 'mVisa' that will allow its customers pay for
services using their smartphones. The service, which can be used by
customers who have installed an app of the bank's mobile wallet
'Pockets', works by scanning QR codes. They can make electronic
payments from smartphones at physical stores, accept e-commerce
deliveries, pay radio taxis and utility bills among others, the bank
said in a statement. The service is based on ‘mVisa’, a new
mobile payment solution from Visa, and ICICI Bank is the first
globally to launch a mobile-app based ‘mVisa’ solution for
consumers and merchants, it said. At present, customers pay either in
cash or have to swipe cards at a point of sale (POS) machine to
complete a transaction. The bank says it has had two million
downloads of Pockets app and 70 per cent of them are non-ICICI Bank
account holders. Customers will have to scan a ‘mVisa’ Quick
Response (QR) code at a merchant location for payment, it added. The
customer first click on the ‘mVisa’ icon on the ‘Pockets’
app, the camera gets switched on and the customer has to scan the QR
code and enter the debit card PIN, it said. The bank's Executive
Director Rajiv Sabharwal said this service will help overcome
limitations of low POS machines penetration, adding there are only
1.1 million machines for 570 million debit cards. "This
restricts cashless payments to be made only at a certain category of
merchants. We believe that the simplicity of this technology will
allow us to address this market gap," he added. To start with,
the facility has been introduced in Bengaluru with 1,500 merchants,
it said, adding it will shortly be extending it to other cities.
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