Mobile payment services gaining currency

Mobile payment services are slowly but surely gaining currency in the Indian market, going by the spate of announcements in the last few days by global payment companies, banks, telecom vendors and mobile financial solution providers. All of them are keen to grab a slice of the Indian mobile payments market, which is seen as the next bastion of growth.

Following the first phase of launch in Delhi NCR and Chennai in 2011, telecom operator Airtel on Thursday announced that its mobile wallet service — airtel money — will now be available in 300-plus key cities. Besides payment of utility bills and recharges, airtel money can be used to make purchases at over 7,000 merchant establishments across the country.

This comes a day after global payments company MasterCard announced the launch of its open-loop Worldwide Mobile Money Partnership programme, in partnership with Comviva, a mobile financial solution provider. The partnership aims to help financially under-served consumers globally access mainstream financial services as also make purchases, transfer funds and pay bills via their mobile phones, according to Mr Manoranjan Mohapatra, CEO, Comviva.

This partnership opens up opportunities for mobile operators and financial institutions in expanding their financial services offerings.

Mr Philip Yen, Group Head of Emerging Payments, Asia Pacific, Middle East and Africa region, MasterCard, said that efforts would be taken to tie-up with Indian telcos and banks under the programme. HDFC Bank and Movida had also launched a mobile payment service that allows customers to make payments through their mobile phones.

The trigger for these launches is the fact that there are more mobile phones in use in India than the number of bank accounts. Mr Sanjay Kapoor, CEO-India and South Asia, Bharti Airtel, said that national rollout of airtel money would accelerate mobile based commerce in India. While an estimated 240 million people across India hold bank accounts, more than 90 per cent of country's population uses cash to pay for its daily needs.

krsrivats@thehindu.co.in