Citi India launches mobile payment facility for corporate clients

Citi India has launched a cash management service which will help its corporate customers collect receivables from their retailers or customers using mobile payment technology.

Called Cash-To-Mobile, this solution will increase the efficiency of collection for the company. It will also help reduce the cost of transaction and ensure the safe transfer of money.

Citi launched a pilot project with Coca Cola in Hyderabad about two weeks back. Using the solution, Coca Cola will receive payments from its retailers through mobile payments.

The transactions will be settled with customers through the National Payments Corporation of India's (NPCI) Interbank Mobile Payment Service (IMPS). This allows the remitters' account to be debited instantaneously and provides an immediate transaction confirmation to the customer.

The Cash-To-Mobile solution identifies remitters through their mobile numbers and automates reconciliation of orders and collections by linking to the company's Enterprise Resource Planning solution.

Since it is a mobile-based transaction, the limit is Rs 50,000 per day per transaction as prescribed by the Reserve Bank of India.

Mr Sudeep Yadav, Managing Director, Head-India, Global Transaction Services said Global Transaction Services accounted for about one-third of Citi India's net income and revenues in the first three quarters of the current calendar year.

For the bank, apart from fee income, it is an opportunity to earn interest income as well, Mr Yadav added. The bank would offer the solution to over 100 of its corporate customers under its cash management service. It is also an opportunity for the bank to tap into the mobile payment segment, which is estimated to reach $350 billion by 2015.

Companies in the FMCG, healthcare and insurance sectors, among others, would benefit from this solution.

The fee would be paid either by the customer or by the remitter depending on the industry, Mr Yadav said.