State Bank launches pre-paid mobile wallet

R. K. Saraf, Deputy Managing Director (CS&NB), State Bank of India, at a press conference in Mumbai on Monday. Photo: Shashi Ashiwal

State Bank of India (SBI) has launched State Bank MobiCash Easy, a mobile wallet which offers facilities such as fund transfer, bill payment, balance inquiry, mini statement, mobile top-ups and DTH recharge to name a few.

It is a pre-paid account accessible over mobile phones, enabling consumers to send remittances to any bank account, transfer funds to other wallets issued by SBI. At present, money withdrawal is not allowed, and the customer is not required to fulfil the KYC (know your customer) norm.

The service, initially launched in Mumbai and Delhi, is available over Wallet Application and plain text SMS. SBI has tied up with a private service provider Oxigen for round-the-clock money transfer and other services.

Targeted at migrant labourers who send money back home from SBI branches, the youth and those seeking to pay bills, SBI’s mobile wallet is easy to use and SBI’s customers and non-customers can use this facility.

The user needs to top up the wallet by depositing cash at any Oxigen retail outlet and this facility is completely risk-free, SBI officials said.

To start with Oxygen CSPs and retail outlets will be the cash in points and the location of this point can be obtained by sending an SMS <Find*Pincode> to 9870888888. The registration process is simple, and can be done over mobile phone.

“State Bank MobiCash Easy will contribute significantly in increasing mobile payments which are at present in a nascent stage. This service will also address the requirement of financial inclusion as it enables us to extend financial services to un-banked masses through the ubiquitous mobile phones,” said RK Saraf, Deputy Managing Director, Corporate Strategy & New Businesses, SBI.

SBI customers have an additional option of topping up the wallet using SBI’s mobile banking service.

Till March, the charge of topping up is waived and for remittances the customer need to pay a minimum of Rs.5 to a maximum of Rs.20. Up to Rs.5,000 remittance is allowed at a time. But customers with KYC have higher limits.