State Bank of India has launched Mobicash Easy, a prepaid mobile wallet service that allows users to transfer funds and make bill payment among others, reports PTI (via Business Standard). The service has been initially launched in Delhi and Mumbai, and will be eventually rolled out in other regions. The application has been developed by Oxigen Services Pvt Ltd.
SBI’s Mobicash Easy wallet provides customers with services such as cash deposit, transfer from wallet to wallet, transfer from wallet to SBI bank account, transfer from wallet to another bank account, mobile/utility payments, DTH/prepaid mobile recharge. Mobicash easy users can deposit money into the wallet, request mini statement, and request a reversal of transaction. It should be noted that as per RBI’s regulation, users cannot withdraw cash from SBI’s Mobicash Easy prepaid wallet.
How to use the service: Customers will have to download the SBI Mobicash on their smartphone device. Once downloaded, users can either login or register for an SBI Mobicash account by sending an SMS SMBC*date of birth (DDMMYY)*Name to 9870888888. Upon registeration users will receive an mpin via SMS. Users can login to the app using their mobile number and mpin number. It should be noted that it’s not mandatory to hold an SBI account to use SBI Mobicash Easy. We tried to register a Mobicash account but haven’t received our mpin number, at the time of writing this article.
Since the service does not require users to submit ‘know your customer’ (KYC) documents, SBI Mobicash Easy has a limit to transactions. However, SBI claims that it would soon launch a KYC enabled mobile wallet service with higher transaction limits. The bank claims that it plans to target migrant laborers and the youth, with the wallet service.
Oxigen had previously partnered with SBI to launch SBI OxiPay, an online mobile, DTH and toll recharge site. Apart from that, Oxigen, Sahyog Microfinance and SBI have also tied up for providing SBI’s Kiosk Banking solutions through Oxigen’s CSP’s and Oxigen has appointed 2,000 CSP’s across India, this network will also be available for State Bank MobiCash services.
Other developments: State owned telecom operator, BSNL, had partnered with State Bank of India (SBI) to launch its mobile baking services via the ubiquitous USSD (unstructured supplementary service data) mobile platform. SBI also offers State Bank FreedoM, a Mobile Banking Service over a native mobile application that required EDGE/GPRS connection on users’ mobile device.
Other prepaid wallets: Airtel offers a semi-closed mobile wallet service which allows Airtel customers to pay utility bills, recharge their phones, shop at merchant outlets and make online transactions using their mobile phones. It also allows users to make instant money transfers between one Airtel money wallet to another and to bank accounts across the country.
Airtel also has a Banking Correspondent tie-up with Axis Bank and offers a low-frills account called Airtel Money Super Account powered by Axis Bank, which supports cash withdrawals in all the regions (namely Mumbai, Delhi, East UP and Bihar) where it’s been launched.
Other players in the prepaid wallet segment include My Mobile Payments, which had launched a semi-closed m-wallet in November 2011, Loop Mobile which partnered with ZipCash to offer a mobile payments service, and Nokia Money, which had shut down earlier this year, but has been acquired by mobile financial services firm FINO.
