ICICI Bank Launches Contactless Mobile Payment Solution

The bank said in a statement Tuesday that it has "unveiled the country's first contactless mobile payment solution to enable its credit and debit customers make in-store contactless payments by just waving their smartphones near an NFC-enabled merchant terminal".

Using the virtual cards, an ICICI Bank customer can initiate electronic payments from Near Field Communication (NFC) enabled smartphones by just waving his/her phone near a contactless merchant terminal, it said.

"We are delighted to introduce yet another first in the country a contactless mobile payment solution that that will allow cashless payments using just smartphones, thereby eliminating the need to carry cash or debit and credit cards. With India becoming the second largest market globally for mobile subscribers as well as smartphones, we expect this to be a big game changer in the Indian payment industry, as it will transform the smartphone into a virtual wallet," said Rajiv Sabharwal, Executive Director, ICICI Bank.

The payment solution uses Host Card Emulation technology.

HCE creates virtual cards for physical credit or debit cards (Visa/ MasterCard) of the Bank.

While the virtual card bears a different card number, the credit limit and expiry date remains same as the original physical card, ICICI Bank said.

The lender said the new launch will benefit nearly 3 crore credit and debit card customers to make in-store payments from mobile phones.

The bank said the level of security is higher in using this app since the card details are not shared during the transaction process.

"This mobile payment solution has been launched today for the employees of the Bank. It will be available for customers in the last week of March when the updated 'Pockets' app will be available on Google Play Store", it added.