Citi Launches NFC Mobile Payment Service In India
Citi Launches NFC Mobile Payment Service In India
Just back from holidays, VASreport.com is back with this highly interesting mobile payment news from the banking world:
Citi today announced the launch of Citi Tap and Pay in the city of Bengaluru, thus bringing to India next-generation contactless credit card payments based on Near Field Communications technology. The launch of the Citi Tap and Pay pilot service will be one of the world’s largest and most comprehensive pilots ever undertaken and is part of Citi’s ongoing efforts to harness new innovative technologies to provide enhanced convenience, accessibility and mobility for customers. Reinforcing its leadership role in accelerating the adoption of this emerging technology, Citi has established a fully secure, scalable and interoperable mobile payments ecosystem in Bengaluru in collaboration with Nokia, Vodafone, MasterCard and ViVOtech.
With the launch of Citi Tap and Pay in India, customers in Bengaluru will experience the simplicity, ease and convenience of using their mobile phone as a credit card. The technology will allow customers to tap their mobile phone on a contactless reader at the point of sale to pay for purchases, eliminating the need for the traditional swiping of credit cards. The service also does away with the need for customers to send SMS or incur mobile data charges to make these payments.
Early adopters of this technology will enjoy promotional offers such as discounts at popular merchant establishments, which cover a wide range of categories including department stores, food courts at shopping malls and office buildings, restaurants and fast food chains, bookstores and multiplexes.
Nokia will support the service with its NFC-enabled Nokia 6212 classic phones The 3G phone provides consumers the capability to conduct NFC-based interactions with other such everyday devices and services. Most importantly, NFC-enabled phones can replace the multitude of cards in consumer wallets. Vodafone is the Mobile Network Operator for the pilot service. MasterCard will offer its MasterCard® PayPass™ contactless mobile
payment and security infrastructure. ViVOtech is providing the underlying technology, including the NFC wallet, the Over-the-Air (OTA) card provisioning software, the smart posters and the mobile coupon application in addition to the contactless readers that participating merchants will use to accept payments.
Jeff Semenchuk, EVP and Head of Growth Ventures, Citi Innovation, said: “Citi believes contactless mobile payment services will be a key lifestyle driver for our highly mobile, international and increasingly urban customer base, and we are delighted to be the first to deliver this innovative service to them. Exceptional customer value creation needs collaboration and we will always look to work together with key ecosystem partners in applying smart, everyday, everywhere technology around the globe, while keeping the customer at the forefront of everything we do.”
Let’s hope to see some more of these mobile payment services, especially in developing countries where margins are often low, however with great volumes and potential.
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