Yeldi Softcom gets RBI licence for digital wallet

FILE - In this photo taken Friday, Oct. 17, 2014, Eddy Cue, Apple Senior Vice President of Internet Software and Services, demonstrates the new Apple Pay mobile payment system at a Whole Foods store in Cupertino, Calif. Everyone from Apple to Starbucks has introduced their own mobile payment system as smartphones have grown in popularity. They’re hoping to capitalize on the expected growth of the sector: Forrester predicts that people using digital wallets to pay in stores will grow from $4 billion in 2014 to $34 billion by 2019. (AP Photo/Eric Risberg, File)

Yeldi Softcom, a payment services company, has received licence from the Reserve Bank of India to operate a semi-closed digital wallet to carry out cashless transactions. The acquisition of the licence will enable Yeldi to target a larger customer base to promote the use of digital wallets, a company statement said. A semi-closed wallet is a digital payment instrument accepted by a pre-defined set of merchants contracted specifically by the issuer (Yeldi). A semi-closed wallet does not allow users to withdraw or redeem cash, the statement said.

Ra. Arjunamurthy, Yeldi Softcom Chairman and MD said: “Most semi-closed wallets require a debit card, credit card or a net banking account. But when it comes to adding money to Yeldi’s products, cash could be remitted over a designated counter to add money to the wallet. Yeldi’s products can even be used by the unbanked population of the country.”