ING Vysya Bank to launch a new Credit Card

                      Please do not be surprised, ING Vysya Banks’ Credit Cards till very recently were being managed by CitiBank.

            ING Vysya Bank has decided to discontinue the White labeling of Citi’s Credit Cards and opt for its own Credit Card program.

            As on date, ING Vysya Banks customers do not have an option to subscribe to its Credit Card. The new Credit Card will be launched in the near future.

            As per information available on  the Bank’s internet banking login page, the facility to make payments online through net banking to erstwhile ING Credit Cards has been withdrawn. Customers have been requested to contact Citibank call centre for any further queries. ING will soon be launching its own Credit Card program which will be well integrated to ING Net Banking.

            So, IVBL customers please wait for the new Credit Card Program. In the meanwhile, CitiBank has approached all the existing Credit Card holders under IVBL credit program, offering attractive terms to migrate to Citi’s own credit cards. 

Market for Indian Mobile Payment Segment - US$350 billion by 2015 - Is your Bank ready to be part of it?

The Interbank Mobile Payment Service(IMPS) launched by National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) in June 2010, received a boost as Citibank has introduced a new Cash Management Solution, around it.

The solution has been branded as Citi Cash-to-Mobile and it was launched last week, with a pilot in Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh with the retailer's of Hindustan Coca-Cola Beverages Private Limited (HCCB), the bottling operation of the Coca-Cola Company in India, being the privileged lot.

The aim of this product is to completely automate the Receivables of a corporate, thereby freeing the company resources to concentrate on other activities.

Aimed at Corporate and Institutional clients, this market first solution empowers corporate customers to receive funds from retailers or end customers instantly via mobile.

As a Safe ePayments motivator, this new development is very exciting and the publicity surrounding this launch will now encourage more and more banking consumers, to experience the magic of IMPS.

Mobile Money Identifier (MMID) the  seven digit random number issued by the bank upon registration for IMPS is a necessity for Citi Cash-to-Mobile to succeed.

The Process flow is as under:

01) The corporate opens a Banking Account with Citi and a MMID is issued to it.

02) The MMID is communicated to it’s distributions channel partners.

03) The distribution channel partners MMID’s are obtained and updated in the Bank’s as well as the Corporate’s  Enterprise Resource Planning solution

04) On the payment due date, a SMS is flashed by the corporate, reminding it’s channel partners on the bill amount due.

05) The channel partners transfer the funds via IMPS module.

06) As the channel partners MMID is stored on the  Enterprise Resource Planning solution, the reconciliation is done, and the MIS reports forwarded to all concerned.

06) As IMPS works 24 hours a day, seven days a week, the reconciliation can be done hourly, and the channel distributors be encouraged to remit money any time of the day or night.

07) The common excuse of ‘bank is closed’, will not be a show-stopper for Bill Payments.

Short term impact: -

a) 30 + Banks are on IMPS, but the remaining Banks have to enter the IMPS circuit, as otherwise the corporates might encourage their channel partners to move to banks offering IMPS.

b) Banks have to offer the complete suite of mobile banking services to enable its customers to obtain the full benefits of IMPS.

c) The CASA average balances at the Sending Bank and Receiving Bank, will increase as the Sender’s have to maintain adequate balance to transfer and the Receiver balance will go up correspondingly.

d) Banks too have to move to a 24*7 Core Banking Solution (CBS), as now funds can move in, move out 24*7.

e) The retail customers once are familiar with IMPS, will be encouraged to try out this  channel for other payments/receivables too. This will provide the  much needed jump for IMPS.

Security:

01) The Amount Limits are as under: -

With end to end encryption: A daily cap of Rs. 50,000 per customer per day for both, fund transfer and transactions involving purchase of goods and services

Without end to end encryption: Transactions up to Rs. 5,000 can be facilitated ( RBI Circular Dated May 4, 2011  2011  RBI/2010 RBI/2010--11/511  11/511 DPSS.CO.No.2502  DPSS.CO.No.2502 /02.23.02/  /02.23.02/ 2010 2010--11)

02) The funds cannot be transferred without a MMID.And, a MMID is attached to a Bank Account. Hence the chance of fraud is low.

Thanks to Citi, for being the first bank to introduce a Solution around IMPS. Now, there is no stopping for IMPS.

The possibilities are endless. Which will the next Bank to tap IMPS innovatively?

Let me end today’s Post with a quote : -

"It's easy to come up with new ideas; the hard part is letting go of what worked for you two years ago, but will soon be out of date."

— Roger von Oech

Product Launch- Citi Tap and Pay

Product Launch- Citi Tap and Pay.

Four months ago, CitiBank in India, launched the next-generartion Mobile Payments in our own Bengaluru, India

 

The Product’s  name is Citi Tap and Pay.

In simple terms, Your Citi Credit Card is transferred to your Mobile Phone(Nokia 6212), and than you can pay your shopping bill by just tapping the phone at the Payment Counter, of Participating Outlets.

More Detials can be accessed at

http://www.online.citibank.co.in/products-services/online-services/tap-and-pay.htm?eOfferCode=OLDURLRED

To encourage Citi Customers, to try out this new facility, Citi has offered to subsidize the cost of Nokia 6612 phone. On top of the subsidy, the users will also be eligible for a Cash-back offer, on making a specified number of transactions.

As this technology is new, Citi is offering this innovative product initially for 6 months only.

Based on the learning’s, Citi might fine-tune the product, before rolling it out nationally.

Nokia will support the service with its NFC-enabled Nokia 6212 phone, which is embedded with an NFC chip. MasterCard will offer its MasterCard PayPass contactless payment and security infrastructure. ViVOtech is providing the underlying technology, including the NFC wallet, the Over-the-Air (OTA) card provisioning software.

 The technology beyond this product is near-field communications (NFC). Near Field Communication (NFC) is a new, short-range wireless connectivity technology that evolved from a combination of existing contactless identification and interconnection technologies

Communication between two NFC-compatible devices occurs when they are brought within four centimeters of one another: a simple wave or touch can establish an NFC connection, which is then compatible with other known wireless technologies such as Bluetooth or Wi-Fi. Because the transmission range is so short, NFC-enabled transactions are inherently secure. Also, physical proximity of the device to the reader gives users the reassurance of being in control of the process.

The success of this new product depends on the POS Terminal with the Merchant Establishments. The POS Terminal has to be equipped to recognize NFC Phones. Hence, this product is acceptable in only 500 outlets in Bangalore.

 For this product to be a success, I feel, Banks and Credit Card Companies might need to work together, otherwise it will be a niche product.