Nokia has partnered with YES BANK to launch a pilot of Nokia Money mobile banking in Pune.
The pilot scheme will let people transfer money to another person simply by using the person’s mobile phone number. They’ll also be able to pay utility bills and top up SIM cards. Looking ahead, there will also be the facility to pay for goods and services.
Nokia earlier did pilot study with Citibank (in Bangalore, using NFC).
The Nokia Money initiative based on Obopay’s platform is initially targeted at growth markets and designed to work in partnership with multiple network operators and banks, involving distributors and merchants in a dynamic open ecosystem to seamlessly provide the new services. YES BANK is our first partner in India to bring this service to market”
Watch this video for more information – details
Competing with other mobile payment services like mChek, JiGrahak?
It’s important to note that Nokia has invested $70mn in Obopay.
It also competes with boku.com which has a tie-up with Airtel in India.
Its been quite a while since Obopay struck its first bank partnership and later Nokia invested in it. It is almost laughable – Who uses YES Bank? For all their funding, Obopay has been an utter failure in US as well.
Well, Obopay India head is an ex-Yes Banker
I guess only time will tell whether this works in the Indian market or not. Also, how well it goes down with the RBI is another key aspect of this offering.
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