Crédit Agricole has unveiled a mobile payments
service in Paris, taking on payments heavyweights such as
PayPal.
It is called kwixo and will enable
person-to-person (P2P), business-to-business (B2B) and
person-to-business (P2B) payments via mobile handsets and the
internet.
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Customers will have no need to hold a credit
card to use the service.
According to Crédit Agricole, kwixo is all set
to go live in mid-June; the website at https://www.kwixo.com/ is already
live and accepting customer registrations.
As an incentive to flag up the launch,
consumers signing up to the service will be able to make up to
three remittances for no charge within the first 30 days following
registration.
For P2P payments, the recipient pays no fee;
the sender will pay a $1 fee for transfers up to €30.
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By GlobalDataFor transfers between €30 and €100, the fee
will be €2 while remittances in excess of €100 will incur a fee of
€3 for the sender.
The last two fees will be reduced to €1 as an
introductory period until the end of August.
Bruno de Laage, Crédit Agricole’s deputy CEO
in charge of retail banking and specialised financial services,
told RBI ahead of the official launch in Paris:
“Our banks in France have a 20% market share,
but we expect this solution to reach all 60m people in France
eventually. We expect it to go viral, in particular among the 11 to
17 year old age group.”
Facebook and Twitter will form part of Crédit
Agricole’s marketing push to promote the service.
Consumers will have to register
with kwixo in order to send and receive money but de Laage
emphasised that they will not have to switch banks.
“We decided to roll out this solution five
years ago, but think that the market is ready for this now and
the solution safe enough. We might roll it out across our other
markets,” de Laage said.
De Laage spoke to RBI on the
sidelines of Crédit Agricole’s investor day in Milan, at which the
bank unveiled details of its revised retail banking strategy.
Crédit Agricole’s CEO Jean-Paul Chifflet said
that the bank was targeting fresh synergies between all its member
banks. In particular, Crédit Agricole set out details of major
investments across its IT systems.
Crédit Agricole, France’s largest retail bank,
also stressed its ongoing support for Greek subsidiary,
Emporiki.
Elsewhere, Crédit Agricole will continue to
target investment in Poland.
