State Bank of India (SBI), India’s largest commercial bank launched mVisa, a mobile-based payment solution app. The app would enable customers to make cashless payments simply by scanning the unique merchant quick response (QR) code at shopping outlets.
mVisa is a mobile based payments solution that would facilitate payments by scanning the QR code from the merchant’s mobile. SBI customers, including debit card holders and internet banking customers who have transaction rights, can now make payments to merchants by scanning the code. This would eliminate the need to swipe physical cards at a card swiping machine.
“With availability of smart phone increasing by leaps and bounds, Mobile-based payments in India have to rise in a big way. Introduction of mVisa, a convenient scan and pay-based option, to our existing customers (including merchant customer) is one step towards providing more convenience to our customers,” Manju Agarwal, deputy managing director of SBI, said in a statement.
The mVisa service is an interoperable low-cost solution with which any bank mVisa customer can do transactions at any mVisa merchants. It provides a quick transaction along with enhanced security as customers need not share their card or mobile with merchants during the course of the payment process.
State Bank of India customers can download the latest version of the SBI Anywhere application from Google Play Store and register for the service by clicking on the mVisa icon on the home screen. SBI does have plans to make mVisa available on Apple’s iPhones also, the banks officials said at the launch event in Bangalore.
Merchants can download their version of the app, and will need to clear the same know-your-customer process required for the card-swipe machines, SBI officials said. That done, each merchant gets a unique QR code generated at the bank’s and Visa’s backend, which they then display at their establishments.
Customers will also need a one-time registration after they’ve downloaded the app, and then they get to scan the merchant’s QR-code, use their Internet banking credentials, enter the payment amount and hit go. Additionally, mVisa users will be able to pay bills and send funds to other Visa account holders. The transactions are processed via Visa’s global network, VisaNet.