The Hindu Business Line : Nokia keen on mobile money transfer services in India

Helsinki, Nov. 11 Nokia expects to be able to launch ‘Nokia Money’, its mobile payment service, in India, no sooner than the banks it is talking to for a partnership get approval from the Reserve Bank of India.

Nokia regards its huge network of 190,000 retail outlets as a major resource that could be used to run several profitable services. Nokia Money, which the Finnish mobile handset major hopes to launch worldwide in the first quarter of next year, could be the first of them. Nokia’s retail outlets could potentially double as money transfer agents — something like Western Union. But such ‘peer to peer’ money transfer is only a part of the story.

Nokia Money would also include other forms of payments such as utility bills, SIM card top-ups and even purchase of train or movie tickets.

But indeed the use of mobile phones to make payments is by no means new. ‘Mobile banking’ exists in various forms in India, including SMS-based payments. However, Nokia’s service would distinguish itself in a few ways.

“We bring scale,” said Mr Teppo Paavola, Vice-President and Head of Corporate Business Development, Nokia, to journalists visiting Nokia’s corporate headquarters here. Besides, Nokia’s subscribers would be able to transfer money across banking networks, he said. The service will be device, telecom operator and bank agnostic.

Nokia’s retail outlets, Mr Paavola said, would function as a sort of extension of banks, for which RBI approval is required.

He said that regulation-wise, India is among the toughest markets to operate in. He did not specify the regulatory hurdles, but observed that that there are ‘a lot of limitations on what non-banks can do’.

Nokia believes that there is a huge potential for itself to profit in the mobile payment space. It says that there are 4 billion mobile phones in the world, while there are only 1.6 billion bank accounts.

More Stories on : Financial Services | M-Commerce

Article E-Mail :: Comment :: Syndication :: Printer Friendly Page

Stories in this Section
Nokia keen on mobile money transfer services in India

Mahindra co, Syndicate Bank tie up to offer pre-owned car loans at 9%

Life insurers may have to make provisioning for lapsed policies

Transaction risk cover in demand: Marsh India

ICICI Bank to be SMX’s clearing bank

Repo in corporate bonds likely in 2010

IDBI Bank trims deposit rates

Bank employees to go on strike on Dec 16