Telecom Lead India: Vodafone India has selected ICICI Bank to launch mobile money service.

The announcement was made by Marten Pieters, MD & CEO, Vodafone India Ltd. and Chanda Kochhar, MD & CEO, ICICI Bank.

m-pesa offering will include a mobile money account with ICICI Bank and a mobile wallet, issued by Mobile Commerce Solutions (MCSL), Vodafone India’s 100 percent subsidiary.

In fact, Vodafone is later to enter the mobile money segment in the country.

Airtel launched mobile money in July 2011 for its mobile customers in Delhi, Noida, Ghaziabad and Faridabad. Aimed at offering customers with an efficient alternative to cash transactions, airtel money will empower its customers with access to a convenient and secure way of making payments through the ubiquitous mobile platform.

Vodafone claims that by facilitating banking transactions at agent locations, this alliance delivers the last mile access in remote areas.

The mobile payment service will be launched initially in the eastern region of the country viz. Kolkata, West Bengal, Bihar and Jharkhand and then will be rolled out to other parts of the country in a phased manner.

“Vodafone is the world’s largest and leading provider of mobile payment services. Vodafone ‘m-pesa’ is offering millions of people basic financial services, beyond the reach of traditional banking. After an in-depth understanding of the Indian customer insights, we concluded that there is tremendous potential for this product in India,” said Marten Pieters, managing director & CEO, Vodafone India.

“ICICI Bank has been at the forefront of leveraging technology in banking and has revolutionized the way Indian customers carry out their banking transactions. We have now launched ‘m-pesa’, a unique and innovative offering which will allow us to provide basic banking services to millions of customers spread across the country,” said Chanda Kochhar, managing director & CEO, ICICI Bank.

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