Financial inclusion facilitating firm Fino, on Wednesday, said that it had acquired Finnish handset-maker Nokia’s mobile payment services business in the country for an undisclosed sum that will help it enter the prepaid mobile payments segment.
Fino, which is primarily into offering business correspondence services to banks as they carry forward the government and Reserve Bank-mandated financial inclusion agenda, has bought Alpha Payment Services, earlier called as Nokia Mobile Payment Services, in an all-cash deal, Fino CEO Manish Khera said here.
“The acquisition will give an opportunity for Fino, which has a network of business correspondents (BCs) spread across the country, to enter the mobile payment business which is said to be a $350 billion opportunity by 2015,’’ he said. We were limited only to the banking and financial services space till now wherein we helped operate bank accounts, sold insurance and facilitated remittances, this deal gives us an entry into the expenditure side,” he said.
