Public sector lender Corporation Bank has introduced a mobile wallet for customers, with which they can make purchases using their phones.
The scheme, called ypaycash, is free for the bank’s customers. To avail it, customers have to transfer up to Rs 5,000 from their Corporation Bank savings or current account to their mobile wallet.
They can then pay using the mobile wallet in any shop where the merchant has installed the system.
The application has been developed by e-mudhra, which provides IT solutions in the banking, financial services, insurance and e-governance sectors.
Talking about the service, e-mudhra’s chief executive officer, Ravi Jagannathan, said, “A special application is installed on the customer’s mobile phone through which a transaction is completed. The customer keys in the amount to be paid after logging into the application.”
As soon as the user fills in the details, an automatically generated and distinct barcode appears on his mobile screen, which the merchant then scans using his own mobile phone’s camera.
The payment then gets done and the appropriate amount is debited from the customer’s mobile wallet.”
This is a very secure, cost-effective and scalable solution,” he added.
However, merchants will be charged a fee of up to 1.50 per cent of the transaction value.
The mobile wallet concept has been gaining in popularity. Recently Airtel has launched an mwallet service that allows customers to make transactions using their mobile phones.
Union Bank of India had tied up with Nokia to roll out a similar service some time ago.
Another telecom operator, Idea Cellular, has partnered with Axis Bank to launch a facility called Idea MyCash that aims to provide basic banking services through the mobile platform.