India’s largest private sector bank,
ICICI, has partnered with local technology vendor mChek to boost
the bank’s mobile payments offering for its debit and credit
cardholders.
In terms of the deal, ICICI will issue
electronic cards to customers with the mChek application on their
handsets while the card data is stored in an encrypted format on
the phone to boost security.
The service will enable customers to make bill
payments, top up prepaid phone balances, make money transfers, pay
insurance premiums and buy travel and movie tickets.
Sachin Khandelwal, senior general manager at
ICICI, said in a statement: “Our association with mChek will offer
our credit and debit card customers yet another secure and safe
option of conducting hassle free transactions online.”
ICICI has been one of the most enthusiastic
advocates of mobile banking; its first generation m-banking
service, launched five years ago, attracted 7 million customers
while its new generation i-mobile service attracted over 100,000
registrations less than six months after its launch last year
(see RBI 607).
