Tech Mahindra forays into NFC based wallet, MoboMoney

BANGALORE, INDIA: Tech Mahindra announced the launch of contactless digital payment ecosystem, MoboMoney.

MoboMoney is a prepaid wallet issued in the form of an NFC (Near-Field Communication) contactless tag. It can be used on a network of NFC enabled Merchant POS, thus allowing customers without an NFC-enabled phone to enjoy the simple tap and pay experience to purchase goods.

Consumers can additionally secure their transactions by the use of pin along with the flexibility to define the transaction limit below which pin is not required. Considering that large chunks of cash transactions are low value payments, elimination of pin vs two-factor authentication required for credit / debit cards, makes the transaction faster at the merchant point. The option of pin-less transactions coupled with the simplicity of NFC enabled tap and pay user experience and the significantly reduced transaction time compared to traditional card payments, has helped both consumers and merchants realize the benefits of Digital Payments. With MoboMoney, merchants can accept payments for as low as Rs. 1, eliminating the problem of change management.

India’s first commercial NFC ecosystem rollout, MoboMoney allows consumers to load their wallet by paying cash at its 1000+ retail network. The money loaded into the customers’ digital wallets can then be used to tap and pay for over the counter payments, recharges, make bill payments, as well as pay online - converting what were earlier payments done in cash, into digital payments. If the user wishes, he/she can link a bank account to the MoboMoney wallet and can retrieve the unspent amount from the wallet into the linked bank account.

Jagdish Mitra, Chief Strategy & Marketing Officer, Head of Growth Factories, Tech Mahindra Ltd., said, “Enabling Digital Payments in a country largely driven by cash presents a huge socio–economic opportunity to bring a positive change in the country’s financial system. We have embarked on a journey to enable 1 million points of acceptance for MoboMoney over the next five years.”

Tech Mahindra is investing to expand the contactless digital payment ecosystem. Target market would include the merchant ecosystem comprising kirana and grocery stores, chemists, restaurants, school- and college-canteens and any store that currently accepts cash for payment.

Tech Mahindra is looking at one million MoboMoney Smart Payment Points that will target not only payment transactions but also act as the digital concierge to deliver multiple digital services such as hyper-commerce, utility bills, ticketing, remittances, banking cash in-cash out services etc. over a mobile/tablet/payment device.