ICICI Bank has become the first institution worldwide to launch mVisa -a card-less and device-less solution the payments company is betting on in the mobile space.
ICICI Bank has incorporated the mVisa application in its Pockets app, which allows payments to be made by scanning a static QR code and entering the amount.
The biggest incentive for merchants to accept mVisa payments is that there is zero investment. The merchant merely has to retain a printed QR code, which can be scanned by the customer using the Pockets app.
The next step involves entering the amount and ATM pin, following which money will be instantly transferred to the mer chant account. mVisa is a digital-only payments solution developed by Visa International in India for the world.
For its mVisa launch, ICICI Bank has tied up with 1,500 merchants in Bangalore and it plans to ramp up this number to 15,000 in a couple of months.
State Bank of India, HDFC Bank and Axis Bank are also working on incorporating mVisa in their own mobile applications.
Besides being card-less and deviceless, the system is interoperable, which means that a merchant who accepts mVisa of one bank will accept payments from any other bank that joins the network.