Visa ramps up electronic payments options in India

BANGALORE: Payment major Visa, which has been witnessing sales volume increase at 50 percent CAGR in India is betting big on its new electronics payment services to fuel further growth in the country.

Visa, which is the market leader with 70 percent market share, saw card sales volume of $23.8 billion for 12 months ended June 2005. Though the card sales volume in India is the highest in South and South East Asia, the country lags behind nations like Thailand and Malaysia when it comes to purchase volume. Visa intends to change this through its various electronic payment options.

“Thanks to our partner banks in India, consumers are becoming more comfortable with electronic payments. We have recently introduced products like Visa Money Transfer for easy remittances; Visa Bill Pay for online payment of utility bills and Visa Mobile top-up for top-up of prepaid cards.”

He said that India was the first country in the Asia Pacific region to launch Visa Money Transfer. The Visa Mobile Top-up that was launched in August this year, helps Visa card holders to top-up their mobile pre-paid cards through ATMs of partner banks.

Using Visa Bill Pay, a new product launched last month, cardholders can make web-based bill payments for over 80 billers in 15 cities.

The company is also conducting pilots of its Visa M-Chq service, a mobile-to-mobile payment service. This service is supported by Airtel, ICICI Bank and developed by Mumbai-based technology company- A.Little.World.