Cash Collection: Cash-To-Mobile by Citi India
- Citi India, subsidiary of Citigroup, has launched Cash-To-Mobile, a mobile cash collection management solution designed for both companies and institutions. Tests have started in the beginning of December with the help of Coca Cola in Hyderabad. All transactions are processed through the Interbank Mobile Payment Service (IMPS) of the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI). Debits and payment notifications are instantly sent.
- Identification of the payer is conducted using his mobile phone number. To comply with the current regulation, in this mobile context a 50,000 rupees limit (about 720 euros) per day is imposed by the Reserve Bank of India.
- India –and Asia in general– is now positioning itself on the mobile payment sector. Cash collection management, as proposed by Citi India, could benefit from the modularity inherent to this medium. According to the bank, Cash-To-Mobile will be proposed to over one hundred customer companies and represents an opportunity for this player to get involved in the high added value mobile market, expected to be worth 350 billion dollars by 2015 according to the Boston Consulting Group’s assessments (Digital India: The Rush to Mobile Money – July 2011).
- In India, banks and operators together take part in the initiatives aiming to develop mobile payment. For now, there are no distinct initiatives from one or the other part.
- Also, in November 2011, the PSP My Mobile Payments, has been granted the required authorisation form the Reserve Bank of India to propose mobile payment services starting this December (m-wallet reloadable at 36,000 retail stores in over 200 towns).
- Citi India’s initiative also fits in an even larger scale RBI design to dematerialise 70% of the financial transactions by 2012.