More Options for Nokia Money in India
- Nokia Money m-wallet is now available across India for payments without necessarily requiring a bank account. To make this deployment easier, agreement have been signed with several banks, including Yes Bank and the Union Bank of India.
- As there are more Nokia stores than banking branches in India, this might improve customers’ access to financial services. To address the largest possible number of people, this solution does not rely on exclusive links with given operators.
- The prepaid feature and possible top-up in stores can be used independently from the other existing options; customers may also opt for the upper versions afterwards. The user simply has to ask for this service to be installed on his mobile phone in a Nokia store. Once this process completed, he can deposit cash at the store to feed his prepaid account and receives an SMS stating his transfer has been made.
- Nokia upholds the part that could be played by mobile devices to respond to financial inclusion issues in India. Unlike the previous solutions including enhanced options (P2P transfers or cash withdrawals), this wallet has less regulatory requirements to comply with: precisely thanks to the prepaid feature.
- Mobile Money has been proposed in India since February 2010 (in partnership with Obopay and Yes Bank); it has been approved by the RBI in August 2010 and its services are now available throughout India.
- The notion of banking inclusion is a reoccurring concern in India (see previous Insights). Several initiatives have already been launched to build bridges between potential customers and the branches or ATMs (nomadic banking self-service, etc.), and even to take advantage of contactless solutions (NXP Semiconductors/Glodyne Technoserve partnership –see November 2011 Insight). Nokia also may rely on its physical presence to meet this objective and enable basic access to financial services.
- Nokia also reminds that only 10% of the Indian villages actually have access to banking branches and that, in urban areas, people still favour cash payments, but could be interested in opting for prepaid solutions.